By Heather Waxman
Staff Writer

This year, the Massachusetts Economic Research Center celebrates its 20th anniversary after years of providing economic data for the MetroWest area with the help of FSU faculty, staff and students.

“About 20 years ago, the region was in a huge recession and that kind of spawned the idea of the need for local, economic data,” said Martha Meaney, co-founder of MERC and economics professor.

Located in Towers Hall, MERC staffcollect and analyze data on economic conditions in 13 communities from the MetroWest area.

Gathering economic data for the regions is one part of MERC’s three-part mission: developing and maintaining economic databases, housing internships for FSU students and providing economic data to businesses, municipalities, nonprofits and residents.

According to the MetroWest Economic Research Center (MERC), recent data shows that MetroWest area unemployment rates are decreasing.

According to Fahlino Sjuib, associate professor of economics and an unemployment analyst for MERC, the unemployment rate in the MetroWest region was recorded at 5 percent in August 2011. This was lower than the August 2010 rate of 6.1 percent, he said.

“Clearly, the decrease in the unemployment rate is a good sign of economic recovery,” said Sjuib.

In the last two decades, the highest unemployment rate in the MetroWest region was 7.3 percent in 1992 and the lowest unemployment rate was 1.7 percent in 2000.

According to the National Bureau of Economic Research, the recession was the longest since World War II. Its ending in June 2009 marked the starting point for economic recovery.

“However, even after two years, unemployment rates in the MetroWest region had not approached the lowest pre-recession rate of 1.7 percent and [the rates] only show a relatively slow decline,” said Sjuib. “This basically implies that the unemployment rate is a lagging indicator of the business cycle.”

When the economy is in recovery, firms, companies and industries wait to see how significant the recovery is before starting the costly process of hiring workers. For this reason, resulting unemployment rates would not decrease immediately after the recovery process started, said Sjuib.

Massachusetts’ unemployment rates decreased from 10 percent in February 2010 to 8.7 percent in February 2011. In comparison, the nation’s unemployment rates decreased from 10.4 percent in February 2010 to 9.5 percent in February 2011, according to MERC.

The Project of Student Debt (PSD) reported an increase in unemployment rates for recent college graduates from 8.7 percent in 2009 to 9.1 percent in 2010. This is the highest annual rate recorded for college graduates aged 20 to 24. According to PSD, the proportion of 2010 FSU graduates with debt was 68 percent.

Don MacRitchie, co-founder of MERC and professor of economics, said Metro West unemployment rates are better than the state’s and the nation’s due to the region’s lack of dependency on areas hit hard by the recession, like the construction and financial sectors.

“They are very small in terms of providing jobs in this particular area,” said MacRitchie. “We’ve got a pretty good-sized manufacturing center and that’s made a difference as well.”

According to MacRitchie, the Metro West region’s cost of living has been 35 percent above the national average for 20 years.

Data from MERC’s 2011 economic profile shows the MetroWest region with the second-highest cost of living in Massachusetts at 34.3 percent above the national average in April 2010 – a 1.8 percent increase from April 2009. In April 2010, the cost of housing in the MetroWest region increased by 13.3 percent from April 2009 and was 78.2 percent above the national average.

The cost of groceries in April 2010 was 9.1 percent above the national average, a 6.3 percent decline from April 2009.

Health care costs in the region for April 2010 decreased 2.3 percent from April 2009 and were 16.3 percent above the national average.

According to Meaney, before 1990, economic information was available for only Boston and Worcester, but the data was not representative of what was going on in the MetroWest area.

“Policies that are initiated at the state level aren’t necessarily the ones that are going to work in Framingham. That was the basic kernel of the idea,” said Meaney.

The organization’s formalized internship program is designed to help students gain experience that will make them more qualified than their competitors in the job market, said Meaney.

Interns have greater levels of responsibility as they spend more time working at MERC. The first level of interns are exposed to how MERC operates and study all of the areas on which the organization reports. After their first semester, students work with one or two faculty members within specific areas of interest. The interns also present at various MERC conferences and publish their work in MERC’s newsletter.

“I love it,” said senior intern Sherren Doyle. “It counts as a course credit and it’s a great way to network, too. It’s definitely helped me gain experience about what’s going on in the real world.”

Senior Tanya Butler is in her third year interning at MERC. “I now understand a lot of economic terminology and useful information that I have directly related to my class work,” said Butler.

Meaney said a combination of skills acquired through MERC and networking at the organization’s conferences allows most interns to get a job soon after graduation.

Dan McGrey, a tax analyst at Bank of New York Mellon, said, “MERC was a huge factor in me gaining employment after graduation. I got to know Dawn Ross from career services through a MERC presentation I made. She would later provide me with contact information for what would become my job.”

James Woodsaka, an accounting specialist at Ropes & Gray in Boston, said, “The most helpful aspect of MERC was helping me to work efficiently with MS Office, especially PowerPoint and Excel, which I make use of every day at work.

“The MERC conferences were also great ways to utilize presentation skills and make valuable business connections.”

MERC’s publications are submitted to the surrounding libraries and town halls of the MetroWest.

Once the data is distributed, groups such as local chambers of commerce and business organizations approach MERC for economic data, said Meaney. Middlesex Savings Bank, MetroWest Daily News and NSTAR sponsor interns and the cost of publications, such as MERC’s economic profile, which is handed out at their yearly conference.

“Every May, we have a conference, so that’s always what we build upon,” said Meaney. “We give an update from the last year for the data junkies in the region.”

The conference discusses MERC’s economic profile, which contains all economic data from the past year regarding issues such as unemployment, labor statistics and cost of living.

“The faculty here works really closely together to try to paint pictures for our outside organizations,” said Meaney. “The song and dance changes, but we try to keep it interesting.”