At our January commission meeting, Dr. Mark Melnik, Director of Economic & Public Policy Research at the UMass Amherst Donahue Institute, presented data on Massachusetts economic growth and challenges in the age of COVID-19 and post-COVID-19 economy. His presentation gave an overview of the statewide data, as well as a closer look at the data in our region. Some takeaways include:

• • Massachusetts business confidence has returned to pre-pandemic levels
  • The pace of state growth has slowed

• • The labor force has begun to rebound but job openings still exceed hires
  • Population growth remains the strongest in the Northeast at 5.3% over ten years
    • Population growth depends on international migration, which has plummeted since 2017
  • Massachusetts had historic “job quits rates” over the summer of 2021
  • Merrimack Valley remains a major employment hub
    • 92k people are employed and live in the Merrimack Valley
    • 68k people are employers in the MV and live outside of it
    • 53k people live in the MV and are employed outside of it

Click here to download and view the presentation slides

MVPC will continue to bring the latest data to our communities as the post-covid economy unfolds. For more information about our economic development initiatives, check out our program page.