Business, Finance & Manufacturing
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The Worcester region enjoys an ideal cross section of financial services that spans the full spectrum of business and individual consumer needs. Worcester has long been the home to leaders in the banking industry and enjoys the services of major federal reserve banks.
The Worcester region has much to boast about in the form of other financial service sectors such as insurance, investments firms, CPA firms, and outstanding law firms.
Manufacturing
Historically, the Worcester region owes much of its growth to manufacturing and continues to encourage this type of development. There are 1,200 manufacturers in Central Massachusetts – representing 24 percent of the region's private industry payroll. Statewide, outside Greater Boston, manufacturing represents 72 percent of the Commonwealth's economic base.
Today, the focus is on how things are made; in particular, the technology-driven shift to new processes in manufacturing – even in older sectors such as textiles and machinery – and an increasingly competitive global marketplace in which transactions take place in real time. The diversity of the manufacturing base in the region, along with the area's exceptional infrastructure, makes this an ideal just-in-time location for manufacturing companies. Importantly, Worcester is a designated U.S. Customs bonded inland port.
The Worcester region offers many advantages that sustain this infrastructure, and helps ensure that manufacturers have access to the cutting-edge resources they need to remain competitive amid technological changes, which are happening at a dizzying rate.
The City is home to the Massachusetts Manufacturing Extension Partnership and the Manufacturing Advancement Center, both of which help local businesses to enhance their competitiveness. The Manufacturing Advancement Center offers special support to small and new manufacturers in this region.
Manufacturers located here also benefit from broadband fiber optic cable, redundant electric and telephone service, and utility rates that are competitive with those elsewhere in the country. With the area's 17 colleges and universities, including several schools that focus on new manufacturing processes and related technology, businesses can tap into a workforce that is both substantial and extremely well trained.
