Fresh Profile: Massachusetts Jobs

Published on 2008-08-18

The economy of Massachusetts has changed dramatically over the past two decades. Driven largely by its capital city of Boston and the Greater Boston area of Boston-Cambridge-Quincy, which contains over 4.4 million of MA's 6.4 million residents, the state's workforce has shifted away from manufacturing jobs and towards the education, healthcare, and high-tech industries. The Massachusetts Budget and Policy Center reported that in 2007, the leisure and hospitality sector had surpassed manufacturing as the sixth-largest source of Massachusetts jobs (manufacturing was second in 1990), reflecting the growing importance of tourism to the state's employment outlook.

Nevertheless, manufacturing remains a sizable contributor to the Massachusetts economy, with a workforce nearly 300,000 strong. Manufacturing technology jobs are of particular importance, as the state ranks in the top three nationwide for workers in measuring and control instruments, consumer electronics, and computer and peripheral equipment production.

According to the American Electronics Association, Massachusetts has the nation's second-highest concentration of high-tech workers. Boston's national prominence as a capital of healthcare and education has played an important role in attracting Massachusetts biotechnology jobs. Nature Network reports that specialized occupations such as bioinformatics jobs are increasingly available in the city. Biotech companies based in Greater Boston include Biogen Idec, Millipore, and Genzyme.

It's hard to overstate the importance of education and healthcare jobs to the Boston area. Those services account for about 20% of Boston's economy, and the Massachusetts General Hospital Corporation is Boston's single largest employer. Many of Greater Boston's medical and research facilities are associated with its world-class schools such as Boston University and Harvard University. Massachusetts General, for example, is a teaching hospital of Harvard Medical School, and conducts the largest hospital-based research program in the U.S. The education and health services sector is also the largest source of jobs in Massachusetts statewide, employing over 620,000 Bay Staters.

Tourism is another notable source of Boston jobs. Boston's position as one of America's top tourist draws is a major reason why MA leisure and hospitality jobs have grown at a 6.4% pace since 2001, eighth-fastest in the country.

Boston's intellectual reputation and strong cultural identity have economic benefits beyond the tourism and education industries; for anyone seeking printing and publishing jobs, Boston is an employment magnet. The educational publisher Houghton Mifflin is based there. Other publishers operating in the Greater Boston area include Beacon Press and Candlewick Press. The Atlantic Monthly and INC. magazine are published out of Boston.

The combination of Boston's intellectual and cultural cachet with its importance as a center of finance and banking has also made it a leading American city for arts organizations and non profit groups (see our article on Boston non profit jobs).

With a population of about 175,000, Worcester is the largest Massachusetts city outside of the Boston metro area. Fortune 500 software and systems manufacturer EMC Corporation is one of the largest providers of jobs in Worcester and the MetroWest area. The University of Massachusetts Medical School and its adjacent biotech park have supported the growth of biotechnology and medical device companies in the region. Worcester is also one of the state's top cities for insurance jobs.

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