Companies in Massachusetts be ok with the state of enterprise however fear about just a few developments on the horizon and what they imply for the longer term.
“Our employers are optimistic when it comes to their own businesses or organizations, proud to live and work in Massachusetts, and energetic about contributing to our success as a state,” Greater Boston Chamber of Commerce President Jim Rooney mentioned Tuesday.
“However, they all also express uncertainty about the economy’s direction and the Commonwealth’s future. Contrasts are playing out in other ways across the local – and national – business picture,” he continued.
Rooney was delivering the chamber’s inaugural “State of Business Address,” when he defined there are greater than 200,000 unfilled jobs within the Commonwealth at present coupled with a 3.3% unemployment price.
“The state’s GDP is 8% higher than it was in 2018, but there are 75,000 fewer workers in the labor force,” Rooney mentioned.
Part of the issue, as with so many issues, are the lingering results of the pandemic. With the rise of distant employment, staff have extra selections than ever after they to determine the place to dwell, Rooney mentioned, and by and enormous they aren’t selecting Massachusetts.
“When it comes to competing for employers and talent, remote work is creating a seismic shift.
I hear anecdotes every day: A small business that went from 40 people in the Boston office to 35 with 5 working remotely in other states,” Rooney mentioned. “This mobility of people, their talents, and their families is connected to remote and hybrid flexibility. The increasing options and benefits for workers are central to the future of work – and we cannot ignore it.”
Housing is simply too costly in Massachusetts, Rooney noticed and transportation within the state is both famously congested on the highways or, within the case of the MBTA, notorious for slowdowns or potential risks.
Partnering with the enterprise group, the chamber president mentioned, is the answer.
“Yes, government has the ability through its delivery of services, legislation, and regulation to enable or restrict economic activity, but that economic activity and those jobs are created by business and commerce,” he mentioned.
Rooney mentioned strikes by Gov. Maura Healey to nominate a housing secretary and bolster the clear power market are good indicators for the longer term, however that expertise have to be saved within the state.
Healey was in Wilmington and Dorchester Tuesday to tour a pair of Associated Industries of Massachusetts member companies when she made comparable factors, saying maintaining staff in Massachusetts was a high precedence for her.
“As your governor, I want you to go visit Texas, I want you to go spend time in the Carolinas, you can go to Florida, but I want you here,” Healey mentioned. “I want you working here, I want you growing families here, right? I want you to build your careers here. I know Massachusetts is in competition right now with a few other places.”
Source: www.bostonherald.com”