While economists celebrated the low unemployment as a sign of a stronger economy, Sue Walsh, the director of Cambridge’s Office of Workforce Development, said that this shift away from blue-collar jobs has hurt workers who are not highly skilled or highly educated.
“There are still a lot of folks out there struggling and trying to find work,” she said.
According to Walsh, the unique nature of the Cambridge job market tends to exclude unskilled laborers or those who are not highly educated.
Another downside to economies that rely on universities is that the cost of housing is often high.
“Generally, I think universities are good things for local employment, but they drive up housing prices,” Freeman said.
But he added that “my guess would be that the benefits far outweigh the costs.”
Hoxby said prospective residents and businesses considering Cambridge as a potential location are drawn to the city by the presence of the universities and that their interest causes a general increase in rent.
Hoxby also said that Cambridge’s education industry is a boon to the area. “Most cities in the U.S. would ‘kill’ to have Cambridge’s education industry and the firms that are attracted by it,” she wrote.