Worcester Business Journal

wbjournal.com | March 7, 2022 | Worcester Business Journal 7 Construction contractors have seen a similarly positive year, as one of the fastest growing industries in the region. Construction jobs in Central Massachusetts grew 15% in 2021, significantly higher than the statewide 6.2% growth rate for the industry. "I've noticed an increase in the work in Central Massachusetts," said Charran Fisher, owner of Fisher Contracting Corp. in Worcester. "Especially in Worcester, there's just been a lot of development, which for me is equivalent to more work." Fisher's company will start on UMass Chan Medical School's New Education and Research Building, a nine-story, $325-million project on Plantation Street in Worcester, and is finishing up work on a 350-car parking garage near the Polar Park baseball stadium. e service industry remains more vulnerable, as it relies on consumer confidence, as well as employer attitudes. "e consumer support coming from our community is what's going to be the best indicator for how we move forward as an industry," said Nicole Broushet, who owns e Vegan Nest Café in Worcester and Clinton. "It's really going to rely a lot on consumer confidence in coming in and supporting our local restaurants." Leisure and hospitality has been on the rise in Central Massachusetts but is growing considerably faster statewide. e industry's growth rate was 10 percentage points higher for the state than for the Central Massachusetts region, according to BLS, indicating the rest of the state may still be solidly in the pandemic recovery process. For areas in Boston and the Cape where the service industry makes up more of the economy, business confidence is lower. Broushet said, along with consumers, municipal governments offering support helped her maintain her restaurant while she pivoted her business model to be more pandemic- resilient. Quantifying confidence While business confidence has important impacts on employer decisions, it can be challenging to quantify and its measurement isn't fail- safe, especially in its early stages. "Confidence is not something that's very factual. It's a feeling – what people think is going to happen," Platzman said. AIM surveys employers monthly, collecting data on their size, hiring rates, sales rates, and confidence on a local and national scale. e questionnaire includes a free answer section where respondents can describe unique challenges and concerns as they arise. While statewide numbers can be compared against 30 years of data, the brand new localized measures should be taken with a grain of salt, said Geehern. "We have to be careful about reading too much into three months of data," Geehern said. "ese readings tend to be somewhat volatile month to month." While Central Massachusetts' was the first regional reading to be developed, AIM has partnered with business associations in Western Massachusetts and the North Shore to develop more localized indexes. "Confidence among employers drives investment decisions, capital decisions, hiring decisions, expansion decisions," said Geehern. "To the extent that we can focus that down in a region, that's going to be very helpful, both to us and to the chambers, but also hopefully to public policy folks as they work on economic issues." Charran Fisher, CEO & president, Fisher Contracting Nicole Broushet, owner, The Vegan Nest Cafe Business confidence Mass. Central Mass. business business confidence confidence January 2021 52.4 February 2021 56.4 March 2021 60.9 April 2021 60.7 May 2021 61.9 June 2021 63.4 July 2021 65.6 August 2021 62 September 2021 58.9 October 2021 58.4 November 2021 57.9 56.3 December 2021 56.7 59.8 January 2022 55.9 57.5 Note: The Business Confidence Index is a composition of businesspeople's perceptions about the future of the economy, on a scale of 0-100, where anything above 50 is considered optimistic. Source: Associated Industries of Massachusetts Since it debuted in November, the Central Massachusetts Business Confidence In- dex has outpaced the statewide average for two of the three months, particularly as statewide confidence has trended downward since July. W At Health New England, we strive to improve the health and lives of the people in our communities. We're passionate about taking extraordinary care of our members. The well-being of the people we serve are what matters most, and we've been meeting the health care needs of our members for more than 35 years. Worcester County, we're here for you. To learn more, visit healthnewengland.org or call us at (855) 460-0574. COM 4694-0222 Where You Matter.

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