Data Collection
Data was collected in areas of demographics, business size, and industry composition for the 30 cities and towns on the North Shore including: Amesbury, Beverly, Boxford, Danvers, Essex, Georgetown, Gloucester, Groveland, Hamilton, Ipswich, Lynn, Lynnfield, Manchester by the Sea, Marblehead, Middleton, Nahant, Newbury, Newburyport, Peabody, Revere, Rockport, Rowley, Salem, Salisbury, Saugus, Swampscott, Topsfield, Wenham, West Newbury, and Winthrop.
This report contains data in four areas for each of the 30 cities and towns above:
Summary of Overall Findings
Since 2017 there have been many changes in all areas of demographics and the economy, with much growth peaking in 2020 and then a decline across the board. The North Shore has landed in a growth position since 2017.
- Small business continues to dominate all 30 communities across the North Shore with 86.6% of their businesses relying on fewer than 20 employees. This is up from 84% in 2018.
- Businesses with less than 5 employees comprise an astounding 44.7% of number of establishments.
- At the end of 2022 the North Shore has seen an overall growth in the number of jobs by 18,445. In 2017 there were 310,745 jobs which increased to 329,190.
- Further, almost half of the businesses (46%) report revenues of less than $1million, but this is still noteworthy given the large number of small businesses.
- Total of companies with 100 to 499 employees only represents 1.19% % of the businesses.
- Manufacturing is rebounding and saw growth of 3,274 jobs.
- Healthcare and Social Assistance has a large job vacancy rate so although the employment numbers declined, they continue to have the most jobs across the North Shore.
- Educational Services and other Professional Services are experiencing significant growth, and Utilities have produced more jobs and businesses for the first time in decades.
- Retail business has increased to produce the largest number of establishments.
- Population across these 30 communities has increased considerably despite some cities and towns experiencing a slight decrease in their population size. In 2017 the population was 584,075 and increased to 603,885 in 2022. Although Massachusetts overall has seen a substantial loss of population, this is not the case for the North Shore. Revere saw the highest growth in population, increasing 12.5% followed by Lynn at 6.5%.
One important finding of this study is that we are seeing a paradigm shift in the reporting and categorization of industries, businesses and employees/ jobs, which in turn impacts the numbers we use for comparisons. As technology advances and consumer demands evolve, new industries, production and products have emerged. Along with this evolution we have seen a change in how data is categorized. For example, a traditional industry, such as manufacturing, has seen growth in the specific types of manufacturing categories that are offered, but these are unable to capture the depth of the changes. Interviews with business owners have shed light into this area, where certain aspects of the work may be contracted out and thus possibly falling under a service category (such as business services or consulting) while other functions within the industry are more akin to engineering or R&D.
As such, some industries might appear to be in decline (such as manufacturing), but in reality, it may be a shift in the production processes, nature, or focus of a business, so those numbers would actually be reflected as growth in a different category. We also found that in some cases, contingent labor does not show up in employee counts, thereby negatively skewing the numbers.
Furthermore, companies may show a decline in employment due to the difficulty of finding the right talent to fill the jobs, (for example in the manufacturing sector there are not enough available machinists so companies don’t fill jobs) and thereby show a reduction in force. The added workload might, in these cases, be handled through overtime payments to their existing machinists.
We found that the local workforce system is experiencing severe pressure from companies to fill job openings (such as machinists in the manufacturing sector), and this type of in-person, real-time data does not show up in the traditional labor market data sources.
Thus, it is imperative that we consider how jobs and industries may be changing, and understand that our perception of traditional industry sectors may preclude our ability to understand today’s business composition by merely looking at changes in numbers. For this report, the number of employees per business was the intended focus. The supporting data is provided for context.
Economy Overview
Small Businesses Dominate the North Shore
Small business continues to dominate all 30 communities across the North Shore with 86.6% of their businesses relying on fewer than 20 employees. This is up from 84% in 2018. Businesses with less than 5 employees comprise an astounding 44.7% of number of establishments. There are 31,293 businesses located on the North Shore, which has increased by 6,087 from 2018. The patterns of business have remained fairly constant among all 30 cities and towns, with the largest type of business, by far, being small businesses with fewer than 5 employees. In every town, this is the largest percentage, averaging 44.7% of all business types in the under 5 employee category. While the number of small businesses continue to grow, the North Shore has also seen growth in the number of large businesses with 89 employing more than 250+ employees. Of the largest industries employing more than 500 employees, almost half are Manufacturing (49%), followed by Health Services (30%) and Education (17%).
Figure 1. Businesses by Number of Employees
Figure 2. Businesses by Number of Employees
Figure 2. Size of Business by City and Town
When taken as a percentage of the whole industry, it is apparent each community across the North Shore has a substantial number of small businesses with few employees. In fact, every community has at least 82% of their businesses relying on fewer than 20 employees, with 33% of all businesses having 4 or fewer employees. A closer look at the business composition for each of the 30 communities can be found in the Appendices.