Mom-and-pop economic development

Boosting unbanked immigrant entrepreneurs in Lawrence

JOSE ROSARIO CAN barely walk a step without pointing to some of the changes he’s made since becoming the owner of Universal Auto Repair in Lawrence. There are the four new vehicle lifts; the diagnostic computers; the uniforms for his staff, complete with name tags; the fresh coat of interior paint; the break room for

Hardworking Gateway City Citizens

The Gateway Cities Journal

President Obama’s parting plea to work collaboratively as citizens to address hard issues had to resonate with Gateway City leaders, who never shy from this civic responsibility. Together, they grapple with the toughest problems and try to find commonsense solutions. In just the past two days, we’ve witnessed two great examples. Wednesday, at the first

Jobless rates dropping all over MA

Of 10 metro areas in US with biggest declines, 7 from Bay State

NEW ECONOMIC DATA suggest the state’s labor market is nearing full capacity, which is translating into employment gains across the state and not just in metropolitan Boston. A group of Massachusetts economists released a MassBenchmarks report on Wednesday suggesting tight labor market conditions are likely to lead to worker shortages in some occupations and high

Workforce Development Transformation Case Studies

Three Examples of Systems Change through Collaborative Gateway City Leadership

It is with great pleasure that we offer three case studies to complement the report Calling All Leaders: An Action Guide to Workforce Development Transformation. The action guide outlined the grand dimensions of the challenge by the numbers, and contrasted the need for workforce development services with the limited resources available. These case studies show

Calling all Gateway City Leaders

An action Guide to Workforce Development Transformation in Massachusetts

In Gateway City regions with an aging and under-skilled labor force, workforce development is an essential ingredient for future economic growth. This new “action guide” provides a helpful playbook for local leaders looking to engage in efforts to transform these systems. In plain English, the report breaks down workforce development to give municipal leaders a

At the buzzer, Gateway City leaders score a game-changer

The Gateway Cities Journal

Gateway City leaders enthusiastically applauded the smart economic development investments Governor Baker signed into law last week at the State House. This session’s economic development package authorized an unusually large infusion of capital spending, including $500 million for the MassWorks grant, $45 million for the Brownfields Redevelopment Fund, and $45 million for the Transformative Development Initiative. These

Urban Business Initiatives Support Gateway City Entrepreneurs

The Gateway Cities Journal

ICIC’s Urban Business Initiatives Support Gateway City Entrepreneurs  In Lawrence, creative public-private partnerships have driven the CEO of a children’s discovery museum, Imajine That, to contemplate growth not only in terms of revenue but also opportunity for local workers and families. Imajine That was named to the Initiative for a Competitive Inner City (ICIC)’s 2015 Inner City

Week 5: E-Over-P

Despite the wall-to-wall coverage, one fact about the early primary states you probably didn’t pick up is that they’ve both got nice looking employment-to-population ratios. The E/P ratio measures the proportion of the state’s working-age population (ages 16 to 64) that is employed. Since the Great Recession, economists have been tracking this measure closely because

Week 4: The Geography of Growth

In recent weeks, we’ve looked at the remarkable pace of job growth in Massachusetts and noted that this encouraging job creation performance came without gains in labor productivity or real wages. Now we add more nuance to the story with a series of maps indicating where jobs were added by industry. The first map shows

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