City of Methuen Master Plan

Methuen Master Plan 2007
Overall, the total number of jobs available within the City are not sufficient in number to employ the
number of workers that reside in Methuen. This correlates with Methuen’s primarily residential
character. In 2005, Methuen contained 0.64 jobs for every worker, a factor which has remained
unchanged over the past fifteen years.
Figure 5 shows that the local and statewide unemployment rates peaked in 2003 and have modestly
declined through 2005. Since 2000, Methuen’s unemployment rate has been averaging 1.4 percentage
points above the statewide. The most recent resident unemployment rate in Methuen (5.9%) was above
the statewide average (4.7%) in August of 2006.
Figure 5: Unemployment Rate Trends
8%
7%
6%
5%
4%
3%
2%
1%
0%
2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005
Source: Massachusetts Department of Workforce Development
Methuen Mass.
INDUSTRY EMPLOYMENT AND WAGES
In terms of the total regional employment base, Methuen is a significant employment center within the
Region (Lawrence Metropolitan Statistical Area – MSA) containing about 15% percent of the total
regional employment in 2004. This percentage of regional employment represents an increase of over
two percentage points since 2001. The private employment base in Methuen in 2004 was 13,279 jobs
representing an increase of 528 jobs (4.1%) since 2001. The increase in local jobs was opposite to the
regional trend of a decrease of about 9,500 jobs (9.3%) over the same time period. Although Methuen
has experienced solid job growth between 2000 and 2004, Methuen remains a net exporter of employees
to other regional communities.
Employment change by industry group for Methuen and the Region is presented in Table 22.
Methuen’s job losses between 2001 and 2004 were concentrated in the manufacturing (224 jobs) and
administrative and waste service (189 jobs) sectors. These job losses were offset by the creation of jobs
primarily in the accommodation and food service (324 jobs), health care and social assistance (98 jobs),
and professional and technical service (98 jobs) sectors. Over the same period, the Region experienced
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