Introduction
Massachusetts, like the rest of the nation, has been hard hit by the current recession and the state’s workers are feeling the pain. As is true throughout the country, Massachusetts is shedding jobs by the thousands and the unemployment rate now is approaching highs not seen here since the depths of the recession of the early 1990s.
As bad as this is, however, the data also reveal that, by many measures, Massachusetts is faring somewhat better in this downturn than is the US as a whole. The unemployment rate in Massachusetts thus far has remained well below that of the US - now at 8.8 percent in the Bay State compared to a national figure of 9.4 percent. Similarly, Massachusetts has lost a smaller percentage of its total jobs (-3.2%) than has the nation as a whole (-4.8%).
Massachusetts also has some important long term strengths to build on coming out of the recession. With over 44% of the Massachusetts workforce holding a Bachelor’s Degree or higher, Massachusetts has – by a sizable margin – a larger percentage of highly educated workers than any other state in the nation (the US average is just 31%). Workers with higher levels of education not only earn higher incomes overall, but are also less likely to face unemployment during economic downturns. While there have been increases in unemployment among highly educated workers, and rates are even somewhat higher in Massachusetts than in other states, the unemployment rate among college educated workers is approximately one third the rate among workers with low education levels, both in Massachusetts and nationally.
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