The Massachusetts economy in numbers

Altogether, Massachusetts employs a little more than 3.2 million workers. The largest number - 455,000 - are, indeed, in the health care sector. Another 338,000 are in education services with 167,000 in finance and insurance. Add these together and they employ about 30 percent of the state’s workforce.

Well, where does everyone else work? The second largest employer in the Commonwealth is retail trade. By itself, it employs nearly 340,000 workers – about the same as all the colleges and universities in the state and all of our public and private K-12 schools.

Another 269,000 work in hotels, motels, restaurants, and bars. That’s 60 percent more than all those who work for banks and insurance companies, including all the neighborhood branches on a street corner near you.

Many think manufacturing is dead in the Commonwealth. With 254,000 employees still employed here, this sector is the 6th largest in the state out of the 21 that we keep track of. There are more workers in manufacturing than in any of the following sectors: finance and insurance, wholesale trade, construction, transportation and warehousing, information services, social services, arts and entertainment, real estate, and utilities.

Contrary to what you might think, the majority of these manufacturing jobs are not “high tech” in the usual sense. They may be using advanced production methods, but most are in traditional industries.

There are close to 25,000 employed in food manufacturing, producing everything from potato chips and soft drinks to beer. Nearly 32,000 work in shops producing fabricated metal products, another 18,000 building machinery of all types, and over 12,000 making plastic and rubber products. Only a few of these make pink flamingo lawn ornaments. Many more are producing sophisticated medical equipment of all kinds and an array of other products. And we still have close to 60,000 workers employed in the computer and electronics industry.

What is more, manufacturing is growing in the state. Just in the first half of last year, manufacturing establishments added more workers than did education services, information services, utilities, and finance and insurance combined. As we will see in a future blog, the health of our manufacturing sector is critically important because of its high wages and its location throughout the state in cities and towns that have been struggling.

When you tally together two other Massachusetts industries you also realize just how huge the "leisure and hospitality" sector is in the state. Between the accommodations and food service industry and employment in arts, entertainment, and recreation, you find that nearly 325,000 work in this super sector, making it almost as large as all of retail trade or all of education services. This is a big deal in the Berkshires and on the Cape and Islands, and really big business in Boston because of its convention center.

So when you think about the Mass economy, you can be proud of our leadership in the fancy new industries that we crow about all the time. But don't forget that most of us work in other sectors and they are just as much the lifeblood of this state.

In an upcoming blog, I will take a look at the kinds of people who work in these industries. What kind of education do they have? How old are they? Where will the future workforce in Massachusetts come from?

Stay tuned.