For better or worse, manufacturing has long been the heart of the economy in Fall River, Mass. But officials say the days of the city relying exclusively on its manufacturing base are gone.
In recent years, that reliance on one economic base has caused unemployment rates to be consistently higher than that of the rest of the state, at times twice as high. For example, in 1991, when unemployment in Massachusetts was about 9 percent and even higher in Fall River, there were 18,000 manufacturing jobs in the city, but only 5,000 service sector jobs, said Kenneth Fiola Jr., executive vice president of the Fall River Office of Economic Development.
ISO 9001:2026: A Practical Opportunity to Build for What’s Next
For Rhode Island manufacturers, ISO 9001 has been much more than a certificate on the…
Learn More
But that has changed. By 1997 the manufacturing sector had shrunk to 12,000 jobs, but the service sector swelled to 11,000 positions, Fiola said. As a result, unemployment rates have come more in line with the rest of the state. The January to September unemployment rate in 1998 is 3.3 percent statewide; compared to 5.1 percent in Fall River, according to the state Department of Labor and Training. The rate fell to as low as 4 percent this summer.
The change has come as the city has worked to diversify its employment base — the health care industry has expanded in Fall River, for example — and protect itself from a downturn in the economy.
“A healthy city is well a diversified city,” Fiola said. “Fall River is becoming a little bit more recession-proof now that we don’t have all our eggs in one basket.”
That’s not to say manufacturing has lost importance. Recently, Fiola, Mayor Edward M. Lambert Jr., and other officials hailed the plans by Main Street Textiles L.P., one of the city’s largest employers, to build a new factory at the city’s defunct municipal airport. The announcement, they said, was a major victory for the city over competing offers from counties in North Carolina, which tried to lure the Fall River company into expanding there.
But Penny Richards, president and chief executive officer of the company, said Fall River’s supply of qualified workers was a factor in its decision to stay in the city. The company seeks to buy a 27-acre parcel at the airport for a 600,000 square-foot factory that would create 600 new jobs in eight years.
“It’s (the city) been good to us, and we wanted to expand our business (there) if at all possible,” Richards said.
It is difficult, however, to get a handle on the overall health of the manufacturing industry in Fall River because many companies are quiet about their successes, said Steven Andrade, president of the Southeastern Massachusetts Manufacturing Partnership, a service organization for manufacturers.
Still, many companies, especially those in the textile manufacturing sector, are benefiting now from investments in technology and from diversifying their customer base. “I think the investments are paying off in terms of profits and market share,” Andrade said of the textile companies. “They’re diversifying their market. It’s good planning.” Richards, for instance, noted that Main Street started by making products for the furniture industry, but now produces products for the automotive industry as well. The same can be said for Main Street’s in-city competitor, Quaker Fabrics Corp., which is also expanding and expects to create another 700 to 800 new jobs with the construction of new facility, said President Larry Liebenow. Quaker also manufactures fabric for the furniture industry, and expects a good deal of its sales growth to come in overseas markets, Liebenow said.
