[2] The village's economic standing greatly declined in the latter half of the 20th century, following the Auchengeich mining disaster and the disintegration of local employment.
Good transport links enable a significant proportion of the population travel to the City of Glasgow, or nearby towns for employment in the professional and commercial sphere.
The village is also located near several historical and cultural landmarks, including the Antonine Wall, a UNESCO World Heritage Site that was built by the Romans in the 2nd century AD.
[13] In September 1959, 47 men lost their lives in a coal mine near the village of Moodiesburn when a faulty fan purifying the air in the colliery went on fire due to an electrical fault.
[14] The men were in bogies travelling to the coal face to start work, and due to the intense smoke they were abandoned just a few hundred metres from safety.
A 1999 article in The Observer lamented Moodiesburn's lack of local employment, as well as the increasing disaffection of its younger residents: "A good number of young families are blatantly poorer than our grandparents.
They have less purchasing power because they live on benefit [...] Moodiesburn is a quiet island whose ageing inhabitants pass the time by looking after one another, visiting, retelling the past.
[18][19] Two career options remain in the area: landscaping product supplier Charcon Scotland (part of Aggregate Industries), and food processing company Devro.
The opposite, north-eastern end, which happens to be near Devro headquarters, is composed mostly of private residences by Christian Salvesen, Tay/Wimpey, Bellway and Persimmon.