City of Methuen Master Plan

E CONOMIC D EVELOPMENT
Attracting and retaining economic development within the City is a strong strategy to provide the City
with additional fiscal resources without increasing residential taxes. The City’s efforts to maximize the
use of limited land area to support employment and taxable value while achieving a balance between
residential costs and the taxable value of commercial and industrial uses will be examined herein.
The following section summarizes economic and fiscal characteristics of the City of Methuen and
represents an update of data and information contained within the City of Methuen Community Development
Plan (2004). The information provided includes labor force and employment trends, characteristics of
the local and regional economies and a profile of existing non-residential land uses in the town. The
majority of this information is taken from published secondary sources, including the Massachusetts
Department of Employment and Training, the 2000 U.S. Census and the Metropolitan Area Planning
Council.
LABOR FORCE AND UNEMPLOYMENT
Growth in the size of the labor force is an important indicator of job creation needs in a community.
Methuen had a labor force of 22,992 in 2005 representing an increase of 564 workers (2.5%) between
2000 and 2005. Over the same time period the number of employed residents (resident employment)
declined modestly by 99 (less than one percent) from 2000 to a 2005 base of 21,690. Figure 4 shows
labor force and employment trends in Methuen between 2000 and 2005.
Figure 4: Labor Force and Resident Unemployment, 2000-2005
23,500
23,000
22,500
22,000
21,500
21,000
20,500
2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005
Source: Massachusetts Department of Workforce Development
Labor Force Employed
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