Boston Mayor Thomas M. Menino recently joined leaders from various community based organizations and hospital administrators for a ribbon cutting ceremony to officially open four new community classrooms in the Longwood Medical Area. The Community Training Center, housed in newly developed medical research and office space owned by BioMed Realty Trust, represent first-of-a-kind arrangements in Boston. Under the leadership of Mayor Menino, this partnership will allow for community groups from Mission Hill, the Fenway, Jamaica Plain, and Roxbury to have direct access to the Longwood Medical Area campus in order to hold education and training classes. This training will allow many people searching for jobs in Boston to prepare themselves for careers within the medical research and healthcare industry, one of city’s leading economic sectors.

“I’m proud that this innovative partnership will provide many more residents in the City of Boston with the educational and training opportunities needed for a career in the healthcare industry,” Mayor Menino said. “The space’s prime location in the Longwood Medical Area allows students from outside of the area to experience Boston’s healthcare industry, while also providing local institutions classroom space for employee training.”

The Healthcare Training Institute, which will operate out of the Community Training center, will engage all of the major health care employers in the area, 2 community colleges, and a collaborative of community-based organizations in providing over 500 employees and community residents per year with a continuum of services — workplace education, college transition, student support/coaching, pre-employment — and career advancement pathways leading to mid-skill occupations in allied health and nursing. The classrooms’ proximity to employers makes it much more feasible for students to be able to attend class after work.

Labels: Boston Jobs

According to the Massachusetts Executive Office of Labor and Workforce Development, area unemployment rates, not adjusted for seasonality, were higher in all twenty-two of the Commonwealth's labor markets in November. Over 3,000 new Boston jobs were created in the fall.

Statewide, the seasonally unadjusted unemployment rate was at 5.5 percent for November, up from 5.0 percent in October. Over the year, the rates were up in all areas. The labor market area estimates for both the unemployment rates and jobs are not adjusted for seasonality and may show different trends than the statewide seasonally adjusted estimates.

The Boston-Cambridge-Quincy, Framingham and Peabody labor market areas recorded over the month job gains in November. Jobs were unchanged in four of the twelve areas for which job estimates are published, while the remaining five areas posted job losses over the month. Over the year, the Boston-Cambridge-Quincy and Framingham areas have added jobs.

The statewide seasonally adjusted November 2008 unemployment rate released last week rose to 5.9 percent from the 5.5 percent rate in October. Statewide the seasonally adjusted jobs estimate for November showed a loss over the month and over the year. The Massachusetts unemployment rate was eight tenths of a percentage point lower than the national rate, which rose from 6.5 percent in October to 6.7 percent in November. The Massachusetts rate has been below the national rate each month since June 2007.

Labels: Boston Jobs

The First Marblehead Corporation announced it has reduced its full-time employee population by approximately 24% in a continued effort to reduce costs. According to a company press release, this represents another phase in the cost reduction plan and it will eliminate Boston jobs, where it is headquartered, as well as a processing center in Medford, Massachusetts.

First Marblehead is in the student loan business, helping “meet the growing demand for private education loans by offering national and regional financial institutions and educational institutions an integrated suite of design, implementation and capital markets services for student loan programs,” notes the company website.

The announcement is the third hit the company has taken this year. According to the Boston Globe, the company eliminated 500 positions – more than half of its workforce – in May. While in August, the company replaced its Chief Executive Officer with its original founder, who had years earlier resigned over questions of excessive spending.

First Marblehead Corporation announced that its total revenues for the first quarter of fiscal 2009 were $84.9 million, down from $380.0 million for the same period last year. The net loss for the first quarter of fiscal 2009 was $92.9 million, a decrease from net income of $168.8 million for the same period last year.

In August 2008, the company received $132.7 million in gross proceeds from the sale of shares of preferred stock to affiliates of GS Capital Partners.

Daniel Meyers, First Marblehead's Chief Executive Officer and President, said, "The illiquidity of the capital markets continues to negatively impact our financial results. We have scaled back expenditures significantly to reduce our operating costs. We are focusing our efforts on our core businesses -- the design, origination, financing and risk management of private student loan products and services. The completion of the GS Capital Partners investment adds to our financial strength and flexibility as the company closed the quarter with $222 million in cash, cash equivalents and investments on the balance sheet."

Meyers added, "Challenging economic times such as these create opportunities that well positioned firms can take advantage of through knowledge, hard work and industry expertise. The strategic realignment and management changes we have undertaken are positioning the company to lead the next product cycle and compete in the newly emerging private student loan marketplace."

Labels: Boston Jobs

Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick has imposed social services budget cuts that will affect jobs for the disabled and blind, as well as mental health programs in the state. Nonprofit advocacy groups are up in arms over the nearly 1,000 layoffs and $1 billion budget cuts, which are the result of the economic crisis.

Gov. Patrick has eliminated funding for Ferguson Industries for the Blind, a state-run business located outside of Boston, which provides legally blind persons employment opportunities in manufacturing. The facility, in business since 1906, will close its doors next month, eliminating the jobs of 25 blind workers.

The governor has also cut training programs for the mentally disabled. Stan Connors, president of Bay Cove Human Services, said these are the most dramatic cuts he has seen to people with mental disabilities. Bay Cove, which services 14,000 people with mental health disabilities, is losing over $3 million from its budget and must lay off approximately 40 people. Cuts are also being made to training programs for these constituents.

"Frankly, many of these people will end up in the hospital. Some will end up incarcerated, and, I believe, some will die,” said Connors.

Over $9 million in cuts to the state’s Department of Mental Health budget have been made. "I'm very concerned about every one of the cuts we put on the table," said Barbara Leadholm, commissioner of the Department of Mental Health. "We're cutting programs that we believe are important, effective, and support our consumers' recovery. That being said, we still had to make these cuts. We're having to prioritize in a way none of us wants to do."

Labels: Boston Jobs, Healthcare Jobs

A mingling of two large financial companies could result in the loss of many Boston finance jobs.

Bank of America Corp. recently rescued Merrill Lynch & Co. from financial woes. Bank of America's wealth management division is located in Boston, and that sector's profit, assets and market leadership doesn't seem to carry the same clout as Merrill's.

This is leaving some current and former Merrill brokers and financial advisers wondering if they will be taken over by Bank of America employees, according to an article by the Boston Business Journal.

"In fact, one result of Bank of America’s $50 billion bid for Merrill Lynch could be a transfer of power, people and processes from Bank of America’s Boston-based wealth management headquarters to Merrill’s turf in New York," the article notes. "Such a move would deliver a serious blow to the local economy and Boston’s standing as a fast-growing money center for the ultra rich."

Bank of America's headquarters in Boston includes such brands as U.S. Trust and Columbia Asset Management, as well as a private banking operation and a small brokerage firm. The bank employs about 9,000 people in Massachusetts, with many of those positions in Boston. A merger between the two companies could result in many of these Boston jobs being lost.

"During the first half of this year, Merrill’s global wealth management division generated $7 billion in revenue and pretax profit of $1.5 billion," the article adds. "Total client assets in global wealth management accounts totaled $1.6 trillion.

"In contrast, Bank of America’s wealth and investment management division, run from Boston by Keith Banks, produced $4.2 billion in revenue and pretax profit of $809 million, not including certain noncore activities," the article continues. "The division holds $867 billion in net client assets."

Labels: Boston Jobs

Recent activity on Wall Street has many states evaluating their financial industry to see how badly they will be effected. The rippling effect of Lehman Brothers filling bankruptcy and Merrill Lynch being purchased by Bank of America will cause layoffs elsewhere than New York, but Boston jobs in finance aren’t expected to see the worst of it.

Boston is not as involved in trading as areas such as New York City. Instead Boston’s financial industry is more focuses on asset management, mutual funds, private equity and the like.

“Fortunately for us, Boston is not known primarily as the banking or investment side of Wall Street,” Samuel L. Hayes, a finance professor at Harvard Business School told the Boston Globe. “It’s strong on the money-management side, which is a more stable business.”

Rising interest rates will make it hard for many individuals and corporations to borrow money. In turn this will decrease the amount of work for many organizations, which will likely cause many employers in the industry to have to do away with some positions.

Another problem is that many investors are now worried about the current state of economy. This may make many individuals less likely to put the amount of money they usually would into mutual funds and other investment opportunities. Due to the recent issues, there is a high likelihood that people will chose to place their money in low risk savings accounts and C.D.s with guaranteed interest rates.

At this time, the full effect the struggling finance industry will have on Boston jobs is unknown. Until there are hard facts about the number of individuals who will lose their jobs on Wall Street and how many co-dependent occupations will be effected, it is hard to guess how many local employers will feel the need to decrease their staff numbers.

Labels: Boston Jobs

Recently, Procter & Gamble Co. announced that it will be doing away with approximately 215 Boston jobs at its manufacturing plant located in the southern area of the city. A company spokesperson also said that Procter & Gamble plans to close the second of its two plants in Devens that handles packaging of Gillette products by the end of 2010.

The South Boston jobs cuts represent around 9 percent of the company’s 2,400 employees in Massachusetts. Anywhere from 50 to 60 workers are expected to be relocated to the plant located in Andover, but most of the operations are being moved either to Mexico or Poland.

At this time, company’s facilities in Andover handle the manufacturing of aerosols and a variety of shaving related products. After the closure of the Devens plant, Procter & Gamble plan to start packing and warehousing operations at Andover.

Altogether the company’s Devens operations has somewhere around 400 in depended contractors working their daily. From time to time, temporary workers are brought in, which can boost the number of individuals to 800. Proctor & Gamble contracts out all of this work through third party employer, SONOCO.

The first Devens plant was closed in 2006, which was only a year after the company purchases Gillette for $53 billion. Before being used by Proctor & Gamble, both of these plants were military bases. The company has received some criticism for using an outside company to hire only temporary workers instead of offering full time, permanent positions.

“All of these moves are critical to the future success of the blades and razor business,” said Proctor & Gamble spokesperson Kelly Vanasse. “These changes make us able to better serve the needs of the regions where these products are going to be sold and also bring some cost efficiencies.”

According to Vanasse, the South Boston job cuts are the result of the company moving the manufacturing of products like Mach3 and Venus to Poland and a recently built Mexican plant. The South Boston facility will remain open.

Labels: Boston Jobs

Boston jobs pay better, according the most recent report from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Nationally, the city is ranked as the fifth highest paying metropolitan area in the country.

In 2007, the average Bostonian was paid 12 percent higher than the national average. The report compared 77 metros to determine where workers were making the most. According to the Bureau, pay relative calculations help to make comparisons in our large and varied economy.
Installation, maintenance and repair employees in Boston made more than anywhere else in the united states. These professionals earned 15 percent more than the national average.

All of the four New England metropolitan areas made it into the top ten highest paid cities in the country. Hartford came in fourth, followed by Boston at fifth. Springfield tied Seattle for sixth place and Providence was in a three-way tie for eighth with San Diego and Minneapolis.
According to the report, San Francisco residents make the most in the country, while those in the Brownsville-Harlingen, Texas area were paid the least.

The first pay relative calculation was conducted in 2002. Since then, Bostonians have consistently been paid more than is the national average.

Although residents in the Boston area made be making more than the majority of the nation, Massachusetts’ economy is not immune to the instability that is effecting the rest of the U.S. According to the Federal Reserve Bank, the industries that are experiencing the most strife are retail, manufacturing and commercial real estate.

Because of this, the number of individuals in Massachusetts claiming jobless benefits jumped to 13 percent higher than last year during the month of June. Approximately 38,600 residents are now receiving unemployment. Despite this, the jobless rate is only 5.2 percent, which is still significantly lower than the national average.

According to the U.S. Department of Labor, the number of unemployment insurance claims recently increased to 406,000 throughout the country. This is an increase of 34,000. Previously economists had predicted the number of claimants to only reach 375,000.

Labels: Boston Jobs

Despite the fact that that the national unemployment rate continues to rise as fear of an economic recession increase, Massachusetts seems to be relatively unaffected at this time. The state’s jobless rate remained at 4.4 percent in March and 2,9000 jobs in Boston and elsewhere were added. A report recently released by the Federal Reserve found that Boston is one of the few cities in the country that has yet to suffer from the wide spread turmoil caused by the housing market crisis.

Nevertheless, there will soon a small decrease in the number of jobs in Boston. First Marblehead Corp. recently announced that it will soon be laying off over half its workforce. The company says that it will do away with 500 jobs in Boston and Medford in hopes of saving $200 million in annual expenses. The layoffs have been caused at least in part to by the instable circumstances in the student loan business at this time. According to a company spokesperson, the positions being done away with will include upper-level executives.

In March of this year, the company’s partner in business, The Education Resources Institute (TERI), which guaranteed the student loans issued by First Marblehead, filed for bankruptcy. This had made it harder for First Marblehead to sell these securities. First Marblehead took another economic hit in April when its other partner, Bank of America, announced that it would be leaving the private student loan business.

According to TERI chief executive Willis J. Hulings, the loss of Boston jobs was not unforeseen. Hulings says that “A significant workforce reduction should not have been unexpected given the significant changes in the capital markets.” He acknowledged that his company’s bankruptcy filing mostly likely contributed to First Marblehead’s financial problems.

First Marblehead’s chief executive Jack Kopnisky said that “This has been an extraordinarily challenging business environment for our company.” He went on to say that “the market and credit conditions have not improved, and TERI’s bankruptcy filing has forced our business situation to change quickly.”

Kopnisky believes that these layoffs could help his company get back on the right part. In a separate statement he said that there is “a strong demand for private student loans and limited supply as some lenders leave the market.” He also said that First Marblehead believes that they have the depth of experience needed to make it through the market’s time of struggle. He finished saying that the changes the company is currently making will allow it to evolve “into a diversified education finance products and services company.”

As of February, First Marblehead had 920 employees. After the job cuts in Boston and Medford were announced shares in the company rose 18 cents to $4.04.

Labels: Boston Jobs