Worcester Business Journal

wbjournal.com | Fact Book 2017 | Worcester Business Journal 37 SPONSORS $10,000+ AbbVie Cole Contracting, Inc. Fallon Health The Hanover Insurance Group Foundation People's United Bank Saint-Gobain Skinner Auctioneers Taipei Cultural Center in New York Unum $5,000+ Bowditch and Dewey, LLP FLEXcon Company Inc. Imperial Distributors, Inc. Interstate Specialty Products, Inc. MassLive Rand-Whitney Container Reliant Medical Group UniBank United Bank Foundation Massachusetts Webster F ive WinnCompanies Worcester Business Journal DONORS $2,500+ J.J. Bafaro, Inc. Herbert E. Berg Florist, Inc. The Boston Globe CCR Wealth Management, LLC Christie's Commerce Bank Country Bank Davis Publications, Inc. Fletcher Tilton PC Foley Incorporated Harvard Pilgrim Health Care Haven Country Club iHeart Radio, 961 SRS & WTAG Miles Press, Inc. Mirick O'Connell Niche Hospitality Group Perfect Focus Eyecare / Goswick Eye Rotmans Spectrum Health Systems, Inc. Wate rs Corporation WorkCentral MEMBERS $1,000+ AAFCPAs Avidia Bank Bartholomew & Company, Inc. Bay State Savings Bank The Berry Group of Wells Fargo Advisors Blue Hive Strategic Environments Central One Federal Credit Union Columbia Tech Cornerstone Bank Cutler Capital Management, LLC Data Source, Inc. Fidelity Bank Fiduciary Investment Advisors, LLC Greenberg, Rosenblatt, Kull & Bitsoli, P.C. Green Leaf Construction Greenwood Industries Kelleher and Sadowsky Associates, Inc. Leadership Transitions, LLC Mercier Electric Co., Inc. Merrill Lynch / The O'Brien Group Russell Morin Fine Catering J.S. Mortimer, Inc. MSW Financial Partners New England Disposal Technologies, Inc. Nitsch Engineering PENTA Communications, Inc. Peppers Artful Events Polar Beverages Risk Strategies Company Carol Seager Associates Seder and Chandler, LLP Sentinel Benefits & Financia l Group Southgate at Shrewsbury St. Mary's Credit Union Sullivan Benefits Sunshine Sign Company, Inc. Thomas J. Woods Insurance Agency, Inc. Wings Over Worcester FRIENDS $500+ Burr Insurance Agency, Inc. Butler-Dearden Callahan Fay Caswell Funeral Home Coghlin Electrical Contractors, Inc. Cryogenic Institute of New England, Inc. Eagle Hill School Franklin Realty Advisors, Inc. George's Coney Island Grimes & Company F.W. Madigan Company, Inc. Marr Oil Heat Co., Inc. Janice G. Marsh, LLC Marsh & McLennan Agency LLC NAI Glickman, Kovago & Jacobs Northwood Insurance Agency , Inc. Quaker Special Risk Scavone Plumbing & Heating Seven Hills Foundation Joffrey Smith Financial Group Sotheby's Struck Catering Sullivan, Garrity & Donnelly Insurance Agency, Inc. The Willows at Worcester As of October 30, 2017 Image: Chinese, Diversions of Court Ladies, (detail), hand scroll ink on silk, Gift of Miss Florance Waterbury, 1957.161 WaM business partner WORCESTER ART MUSEUM Thank You Business Partners! Join us! Contact Karmen Bogdesic: 508.793.4326 / karmenbogdesic@worcesterart.org / worcesterart.org WORCESTER ART MUSEUM / 55 Salisbury Street / Worcester, MA 01609 / 508.799.4406 WBJ-BPad-NOV2017.qxp_Layout 1 10/30/17 2:59 PM Page 1 Source: U.S. Census Bureau and UMass Donahue Institute Population Estimates Program 2016 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 1,253,714 1.5M 900,000 1.2M 600,000 300,000 0 1,207,210 1,232,737 Central Massachusetts population growth met in October at the Workforce Central Career Center in Worcester, the most pressing needs are shortening wait times for immigrants to enroll in English language classes or high school- equivalency tests, or getting workers of limited means transportation they need to get to work. Immigrants replacing aging workforce A roughly equal number of Central Mass. workers have a bachelor's degree as have a high school diploma or less. But with so many jobs not requiring a bache- lor's, it's left many workers mal-employed, said Jeffrey Turgeon, the executive direc- tor of the Central Massachusetts Workforce Investment Board. The workforce, especially those who are native born, is quickly aging, and more workers leave the region than come in, Turgeon said. Immigrants have propped up the area's population and workforce, but they often require English language or other training. The average weekly wages for a Worcester County worker is actually just below the national average — $1,046 compared to $1,067, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Those going to the Workforce Central Career Center find jobs again in a wide range of industries. Healthcare jobs make up the most job destinations, fol- lowed closely by technology or scientific jobs, administrative work and manufac- turing — but all are less than 10 percent of all the new jobs obtained by those passing through the career center. $150K truck drivers Truck drivers are in the most demand of any job not requiring a bachelor's degree, according to the Central Massachusetts Workforce Investment Board. In related work, die- sel technicians, who work on trucks, are in such high demand that Tri State Truck Center in Shrewsbury donated a truck to Worcester South High School for a training program, said Jil Wonoski, a marketing consultant for the company. "We would take, right now, as many diesel techs as we could," Wonoski said. The business, she added, has nearly doubled its number of employees, to 160, in the past six years. For every 10 retiring diesel techni- cians, only two are entering the busi- ness to replace them, Wonoski said. "The need, of course, is huge," she said. Diesel technicians enter making $14 to $16 an hour but can end up making $150,000 a year including overtime pay, she said. Katherine Fairbanks founded DirtyGirl Disposal in 2009 with a goal of helping women get their commercial drivers' licenses. W A S S E T S C e n t r a l M a s s . W o r k f o r c e Continued from Page 34

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