Jobs by Sector across Gateway City Districts

These charts draw on 2023 LODES workplace employment data to show the sectoral composition of jobs located within algorithmically-delineated downtown cores and neighborhood commercial districts across Massachusetts's 24 Gateway Cities, excluding Boston. The stacked bar chart reveals both the scale and structure of each city's district economy, while the normalized view strips out size differences so you can compare economic character directly — a city where healthcare dominates at 40% looks the same at the bar level whether it has 2,000 or 20,000 jobs. Look for cities where a single sector crowds out the rest, which often signals fragility or a downtown anchored by one large institutional employer rather than a diverse commercial base, and contrast those against cities with broader mixes of retail, professional services, and food and accommodation, which tend to indicate more pedestrian-oriented, market-driven activity. For workforce development, business attraction, and downtown revitalization strategy, the sector mix reveals whether a city's commercial core is genuinely competitive or dependent on public-sector and institutional employment that may not generate the foot traffic and spin-off activity needed to support small business ecosystems.

Sector Mix by City

Jobs by Sector across Gateway City Districts — 2019 (Pre-COVID)

Sector Mix by City — 2019