Education helps insulate region from job loss
The economic downturn that has led employers across the country to shed jobs is playing out a little differently in the western suburbs, with their high concentration of well-educated workers.
The latest unemployment figures available from the state indicate that Massachusetts is doing better than the rest of the country and that the western suburbs are doing better still.
The Massachusetts unemployment rate is 5.3 percent, according to estimates for September released by the state's Executive Office of Labor and Workforce Development. The national average is 6.1 percent.
Unemployment for the region inside Interstate 495, which is made up largely of the GlobeWest area, was 4.8 percent. The rate in the Framingham area was lower, at 4.3 percent.
The region's better showing is largely due to its highly educated workforce and the high cost of living, said Maureen Dunne, employment project manager for the MetroWest Economic Research Center at Framingham State College.
"Professionally, they are in demand elsewhere," she said of the region's workers. "They will take their skill set and go."
Dunne outlined the typical unemployment profile: "When someone is laid off in this area, most likely the person has significant skills, significant educational attainment, lots of professional achievements, and may be middle-aged."
Of the 37 towns in the GlobeWest coverage area, all but one had lower unemployment rates for September than the state average, according to the latest state data released. Bellingham was the exception with a rate of 6 percent. Do ver, Lincoln, Sherborn, and Weston had the lowest rates in the area, with 3.3 percent, 3.2 percent, 3.4 percent, and 3.3 percent, respectively. The highest rates in the area aside from Bellingham were in Milford at 5.2 percent, Plainville at 5.1 percent, and Upton at 5.1 percent.
The educational resume for the region is dramatically different than for the rest of the country. Fifty-two percent of the region's workforce has a bachelor's degree, compared with only 24 percent nationwide, Dunne said. Also in the area, 23 percent have graduate or professional degrees, compared with 9 percent nationwide.
"These people are highly employable, as long as professional and technical jobs do not get outsourced," she said.
The flip side of that demand is that the cost of living is so high in the western suburbs that people tend to move out if they lose their job and cannot find a replacement quickly, Dunne said.
The Framingham Labor Market Area - which includes Ashland, Berlin, Framingham, Holliston, Hopedale, Hopkinton, Hudson, Marlborough, Mendon, Milford, Natick, Southborough, and Upton - has posted year-to-year job growth in every month of this year through September, according to Linnea Walsh, spokeswoman for the Executive Office of Labor and Workforce Development.
The professional, scientific, and business services sector is the leading generator of job growth for this area, with 1,300 new jobs in September, compared with the same month last year, she said. Jobs in the education and health services sector are also up, due to strong growth in the health and social assistance industries, Walsh added.
One of the reasons the state is not suffering as much as the rest of the country is the diversity of the high-tech base in Greater Boston, said Bob Murphy, an economics professor at Boston College. The national shocks are focused in the housing and real estate sector, he said, and although the area had a bubble, it seems to have not overbuilt the way some parts of the country did.
The state is also focused on higher education and healthcare, two sectors that are not as likely to feel as tight a pinch, Murphy said.
Wages are quite high in the western suburbs compared with the rest of the state, said Dunne, whose center just released 2007 data for a 13-town area including Ashland, Framingham, Holliston, Hopkinton, Hudson, Marlborough, Natick, Northborough, Sherborn, Sudbury, Southborough, Wayland, and Westborough.
The professional, scientific, and business services sector, which is the number one employer for the 13-town region, paid an average wage of $79,500, including benefits. That sector includes scientific research firms, accounting firms, consulting, and engineering services.
The trade, transportation, and utilities sector is number two for the 13-town region, and manufacturing is number three. Manufacturing in this area is highly skilled and specialized for companies like Bose,
Going forward, Dunne said, one big help for the jobs picture in the region is that only 3 percent of jobs come from financial services, which is expecting a hard hit due to the credit crisis and Wall Street woes. By contrast the South Shore had a 14 percent stake in financial services in 2005, she said.
Lisa Kocian can be reached at 508-820-4231 or at lkocian@globe.com. 