Issue link: https://nebusinessmedia.uberflip.com/i/743676
4 2016 Central Mass By The Numbers • Worcester Business Journal www.wbjournal.com Table of Contents Community & Employment. ............. 8 Highest-paying jobs in Central Mass. .......................................................... 8 Fastest growing jobs in Central Mass. .......................................................... 9 Employment in Massachusetts ............................... 10 Population growth by community in Central Mass. ........................................................ 11 Unemployment rate by community in Central Mass. ........................................................ 12 New England unemployment rates ........................ 13 Education ....................................... 14 Educational attainment by county ............................ 14 College enrollments in Central Mass. ...................... 17 MCAS scores at Central Mass. high schools ........... 17 Innovation schools in Central Mass. ......................... 18 School district spending in Central Mass. ............... 19 Banking & Finance ......................... 21 Venture capital investments in Mass ........................ 21 Bank deposits by community .................................... 23 Worcester city budget breakdown ........................... 24 State budget breakdown ........................................... 24 Property tax revenue by community in Central Mass. ...................................... 27 Health Care ................................... 28 Prescription drug spending by insurers .................. 28 Health insurance premiums ..................................... 29 Central Mass. hospitals' operating margins ............ 30 Medical spending by category ................................ 30 Real Estate ..................................... 32 Highest commercial/industrial property tax rates ....................................................... 32 Office vacancy rates ................................................... 32 Foreclosures by community in Central Mass. .......................................................... 33 Assessed value of property by community in Central Mass. ..................................... 34 Property tax rates by community in Central Mass. . ........................................................ 36 Value of tax-exempt property by community in Central Mass. ..................................... 37 Manufacturing ............................... 38 Manufacturing salary in Worcester County .................................................. 38 Manufacturing employment in state and region ...................................................... 38 Salaries for engineers by category .......................... 39 Salaries in manufacturing vs. other industries ..................................................... 39 Energy & Transportation ............... 40 Clean energy jobs ...................................................... 40 Highest use of public transit by Central Mass. community .................................... 42 Average commuting times by community in Central Mass. ................................ 42 Gasoline prices in Massachusetts ............................ 43 Fuel mix of New England power plants ................... 43 Business Resources ....................... 44 Small business services in Massachusetts L ast year, when I was hired to be the editor of the Worcester Business Journal, there was a three-week period in September and October where I was shuffling back and forth between my new job at WBJ and my old managing editor job at Hartford Business Journal, which is owned by the same company. On the very first day after I emerged from this two-job extravaganza, Research Director Stephanie Meagher – who herself was less than a month on the job – came in to my office wanting to know about Central Mass. By The Numbers. Since no publication like it existed at HBJ, I had never heard of it prior to this meeting. Yet, Stephanie wanted to know what exactly I wanted to change from the previous year: which charts should be included or discarded, what new data we wanted, what needed to be updated and what didn't, and how it all should be presented in the print publication. And, by the way, the data usually takes a month to compile, and we were less than three weeks from the press date. Completely in the dark prior to the meeting about this publication and faced with the typical mountain of work that accompanies any new job, I made the decision to simply update all the By The Numbers data from 2014. Over the course of the last year, we have updated all of WBJ's publications for a more modern reading style, including a redesign of the typical WBJ pub, along with all the special editions and sections, and at last, we come back full circle to By The Numbers. This is one of three data-heavy publications WBJ publishes annually, along with Book of Lists in July and Economic Forecast in December. The trick with the data-heavy ones is honoring the original intent of providing raw market intelligence while updating the look and feel of the publication so all that data doesn't run together for the reader. Now, with apt time to prepare, we have made those updates. The same charts and graphics full of Central Mass business information is there, but we've add a little more context with stories, Q&As and elaborate headlines to cut to exactly what all this data says and means for the region. By The Numbers is still a publication that can sit around your office for a year as a resource for all sorts of business information, but that intel is provided in a better context. — Brad Kane, editor Making sense of the numbers Editor, Brad Kane, bkane@wbjournal.com Digital Editor, Sam Bonacci, sbonacci@wbjournal.com Staff Writers Laura Finaldi, lfinaldi@wbjournal.com Emily Micucci, emicucci@wbjournal.com Contributors Livia Gershon Research Director, Stephanie Meagher, smeagher@nebusinessmedia.com Research Assistant, Heide Martin, hmartin@nebusinessmedia.com Production Director, Kira Beaudoin, kbeaudoin@wbjournal.com Associate Art Director, Mitchell Hayes, mhayes@wbjournal.com Senior Accounts Manager Matt Majikas, mmajikas@wbjournal.com Custom Publishing Project Manager Christine Juetten, cjuetten@wbjournal.com Marketing & Events Manager Kris Prosser, kprosser@wbjournal.com Events and Sales Assistant Clare Hyland, chyland@wbjournal.com COO, Mary Rogers, mrogers@nebusinessmedia.com Accounting Manager, Valerie Clark, vclark@nebusinessmedia.com Accounting Assistant, Rae Rogers, rrogers@nebusinessmedia.com Collections Manager, Raki Zwiebel, rzwiebel@nebusinessmedia.com Human Resources, Kim Vautour, kvautour@nebusinessmedia.com Publisher, CEO, Peter Stanton pstanton@nebusinessmedia.com Associate Publisher, Mark Murray mmurray@wbjournal.com President, Joseph Zwiebel jzwiebel@nebusinessmedia.com Worcester Business Journal (ISSN#1063-6595) is published bi-weeky, 24x per year, including 5 special issues in April, July, September, November and December, by New Engand Business Media. 172 Shrewsbury St., Worcester, MA 01604. Periodicals postage paid at Worcester, MA. Copyright 2015. All rights reserved. Postmaster: Please send address changes to: Worcester Business Journal, PO Box 330, Congers, NY 10920-9894. Subscriptions: Annual subscriptions are available for $54.95. For more information, please email wbjournal@ cambeywest.com or contact our circulation department at 845-267-3008. Fax: 845.267.3478 Advertising: For advertising information, please call Mark Murray at 508-755-8004 ext. 227. Fax: 508-755-8860. Worcester Business Journal accepts no responsibility for unsolicited manuscripts or materials and in general does not return them to the sender. Worcester Business Journal 172 Shrewsbury Street, Worcester, MA 01604 508-755-8004 tel. • 508-755-8860 fax www.wbjournal.com A division of: Worcester Business Journal WBJ W