Under communism the woodworking trade was nationalised and concentrated: sawmilling, joinery and furniture-making in bigger plants, with engineering and plastics arriving later on the industrial ground at the edge of town. In 1968 Rajec was granted the status of a town again. The square survived all of it — nobody drove a boulevard through the middle of it — which is why the historic centre is still a complete rectangle of low burgher houses, something rarer in northern Slovakia than in the south.Za socializmu drevárske remeslo znárodnili a sústredili: píly, stolárne a výrobu nábytku do väčších závodov, neskôr na priemyselnú plochu na okraji mesta pribudlo strojárstvo a plasty. V roku 1968 získal Rajec znova štatút mesta. Námestie to všetko prežilo — nikto cezeň neprerazil bulvár — a preto je historické centrum dodnes celistvým obdĺžnikom nízkych meštianskych domov, čo je na severnom Slovensku vzácnejšie než na juhu.