With vaccinations for most residents on the horizon, the Baker administration and Democratic lawmakers are looking at how the state can recover from a long year of pandemic-inflicted economic loss and prepare for the uncertain future of the workplace.
Baker appeared at a virtual event on grants for rehabilitating industrial sites Tuesday and called budget and economic development bills taken up by the Legislature this year an opportunity to anticipate what the working world will look like in what he's calling "the next normal" after vaccinations return some workers to offices.
"I think we are all going to need to figure out how to lean in to some of the changes that have taken place over the course of the past year, because some of them I don't think are going away," Baker said.
To that point, Economic Development Secretary Mike Kennealy told lawmakers he's concentred on supporting small businesses and downtowns, increasing employment, maintaining the commonwealth's lead in certain sectors and figuring out how the pandemic will shift where workers want to live.
"These are the things we felt like we absolutely had to get done to have the kind of economic recovery we all want to see," Kennealy told lawmakers at a budget hearing Tuesday.
Baker said his "future of work" initiative is focused on commuting patterns, the changing housing market and what employers and workers want from employment post vaccine.
"What does the post-pandemic world look like, and what will the impact of that be on the way we've historically thought about how and where people work and how and where they live?" Baker said.
