Boston Fed: Why Massachusetts Post-COVID Employment Growth has Lagged

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Employment growth in Massachusetts has lagged that of the US since COVID 2020 pandemic. A new study by economists at the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston calculates that, when indexed to January 2020, total employment in Massachusetts in July 2026 was slightly below the January 2020 level (0.994), but the comparable figure for the US was slightly higher (1.045). They conclude that anemic post-pandemic growth in three sectors, professional and business services, healthcare and social assistance, and construction were primarily to blame. However, they note that Massachusetts enjoyed above average growth from these three sectors from January 2009 to January 2020, and that this pace of growth proved to be unsustainable post-COVID.

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