Massachusetts never got its jobs back

The August drop is later than the official books

Massachusetts lost 7,100 jobs in August, according to state labor figures reported Monday, almost wiping out a year’s gains and handing Republicans a talking point six weeks from Election Day. The state’s own economist, Mark Rembert, pointed to relatively low unemployment among workers aged 25 to 54 compared with Texas, New Jersey, New York and California. That is a household survey talking about joblessness. The question the payroll survey can answer is cruder and, for a governor, ruder: has Massachusetts actually been adding jobs?

The Bureau of Labor Statistics snapshot available here ends in July 2026, one month before that August print, and it is seasonally adjusted. It does not show a sudden stall. It shows a state that never quite recaptured the jobs it had on the eve of the pandemic. Massachusetts nonfarm payrolls were 3.713 million in July 2026, up only 5,800, or 0.16 percent, from a year earlier — slower than the United States (0.20 percent), New York (0.21 percent), Florida (0.41 percent), California (0.63 percent) and Texas (1.16 percent). New Jersey actually shrank over the year. The Bay State’s year-to-date gain from December 2025 was 6,800 jobs. July itself was down 4,600 from June. The August loss reported locally is a later observation, not a contradiction of this file.

Line chart of payroll indexes from 2019 through July 2026 for Massachusetts, New York, New Jersey, Texas, California, Florida and the United States, all set to 100 in February 2020. Massachusetts ends just below 100 while Texas and Florida are well above. — Seasonally adjusted total nonfarm employment, indexed to February 2020 = 100. Massachusetts is the only state in this peer set still below its pre-pandemic payroll level as of July 2026. Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, State and Area Employment and Current Employment Statistics, snapshot dated 24 August 2026. Sources: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, State and Area Employment; U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Current Employment Statistics.

month	Massachusetts	New York	New Jersey	Texas	California	Florida	United States
2019-01	98.33	99.21	99.11	97.86	98.07	97.94	98.53
2019-02	98.53	99.28	99.1	98.12	98.14	98.16	98.54
2019-03	98.65	99.43	99.23	98.21	98.27	98.3	98.69
2019-04	99.05	99.55	99.31	98.42	98.3	98.39	98.88
2019-05	99.15	99.55	99.25	98.66	98.44	98.45	98.9
2019-06	99.26	99.63	99.42	98.86	98.65	98.6	99.04
2019-07	99.13	99.49	99.55	99.04	98.7	98.74	99.11
2019-08	99.18	99.49	99.43	99.26	98.89	99.04	99.26
2019-09	99.27	99.68	99.43	99.38	98.96	98.98	99.39
2019-10	99.29	99.58	99.48	99.4	99.08	99.36	99.45
2019-11	99.41	99.75	99.77	99.67	99.43	99.62	99.59
2019-12	99.63	99.73	99.69	99.7	99.52	99.82	99.67
2020-01	99.72	99.93	99.86	99.87	99.87	99.9	99.83
2020-02	100	100	100	100	100	100	100
2020-03	99	98.84	99.3	99.59	99	99.34	99.08
2020-04	81.6	79.85	82.87	88.84	84.49	85.92	85.64
2020-05	83.05	81.45	83.21	90.71	85.55	88.56	87.36
2020-06	85.1	83.89	84.64	92.52	88.49	91.72	90.4
2020-07	87.42	85.08	87.69	92.54	88.72	92.18	91.44
2020-08	89.05	87.19	89.46	93.39	89.25	92.63	92.47
2020-09	90.31	89.26	91.58	93.96	90.11	93.34	93.09
2020-10	91.16	89.94	92.31	94.64	91.26	94.17	93.54
2020-11	91.6	90.06	92.42	95	91.65	94.56	93.72
2020-12	91.52	89.77	92.52	95.39	91.19	95.01	93.6
2021-01	91.9	89.77	93.15	95.72	90.63	95.48	93.81
2021-02	92.26	90.03	93.29	95.41	91.78	95.89	94.15
2021-03	92.69	90.6	93.68	96.39	92.54	96.44	94.71
2021-04	93.29	91.05	94.28	96.78	93.42	96.51	94.94
2021-05	93.54	91.26	94.55	97.22	94.05	97.22	95.25
2021-06	93.88	91.47	94.77	97.75	94.45	97.81	95.75
2021-07	94.96	92.15	95.87	98.65	95.57	98.77	96.37
2021-08	95.22	92.37	96.04	98.85	96.1	98.99	96.73
2021-09	95.07	93.05	96.4	99.3	96.07	99.52	97.03
2021-10	95.98	94.32	97.78	100.41	97.46	100.56	97.56
2021-11	96.27	94.71	98.16	100.82	97.83	100.97	97.99
2021-12	96.55	95.13	98.66	101.38	98.22	101.32	98.37
2022-01	96.75	94.97	98.7	101.37	98.26	101.5	98.5
2022-02	97.3	95.69	99.6	102.11	99.05	102.15	99.04
2022-03	97.44	95.9	99.83	102.4	99.42	102.36	99.36
2022-04	97.84	95.97	100	103.1	99.75	103.08	99.56
2022-05	97.78	96.24	100.11	103.39	99.89	103.46	99.76
2022-06	98.06	96.55	100.06	103.61	100.16	103.64	100.04
2022-07	98.48	97.25	100.84	104.54	100.44	104.46	100.51
2022-08	98.52	97.48	101.02	104.91	100.65	104.81	100.7
2022-09	98.6	97.45	100.95	105.3	100.74	105.29	100.85
2022-10	98.43	97.62	100.97	105.51	100.67	105.24	101.08
2022-11	98.65	97.76	101.23	105.72	100.76	105.32	101.28
2022-12	98.51	97.73	101.32	105.89	100.81	105.7	101.35
2023-01	98.97	98.13	101.74	106.46	100.54	106.19	101.63
2023-02	99.01	98.17	101.81	106.63	100.69	106.4	101.82
2023-03	99.1	98.26	101.85	106.9	100.64	106.66	101.87
2023-04	98.93	98.25	101.49	106.95	100.58	106.95	102.02
2023-05	99.01	98.59	102.03	107.16	100.9	107.24	102.21
2023-06	99.17	98.92	102.3	107.63	101.06	107.67	102.36
2023-07	99.22	98.93	102.18	107.43	100.81	107.66	102.46
2023-08	99.32	98.98	102.35	107.67	100.99	107.82	102.61
2023-09	99.33	99.11	102.66	107.94	101.24	108.15	102.71
2023-10	99.33	99.11	102.43	107.97	101.04	108.41	102.81
2023-11	99.3	99.17	102.57	108.06	101.12	108.48	102.9
2023-12	99.5	99.47	102.78	108.23	101.41	108.65	103
2024-01	99.45	99.58	102.72	108.43	102.07	108.82	103.11
2024-02	99.44	99.71	102.85	108.58	101.67	108.94	103.25
2024-03	99.63	100	102.97	108.73	101.74	109.14	103.4
2024-04	99.37	100.29	102.93	108.8	101.56	109.25	103.44
2024-05	99.56	100.42	102.98	109.02	101.54	109.34	103.49
2024-06	99.73	100.72	103.18	109.22	101.52	109.39	103.55
2024-07	99.47	100.44	102.91	108.92	101.63	109.48	103.58
2024-08	99.49	100.5	102.97	109.47	101.72	109.65	103.59
2024-09	99.49	100.86	103.32	109.62	101.86	109.94	103.69
2024-10	99.47	100.8	103.4	109.74	102.22	108.73	103.71
2024-11	99.39	100.94	103.44	109.9	102.2	109.81	103.8
2024-12	99.39	101.07	103.55	110.04	101.95	109.86	103.95
2025-01	99.39	101.26	103.52	110.1	102.06	110.04	103.92
2025-02	99.24	101.33	103.6	110.21	101.94	110.15	103.95
2025-03	99.17	101.51	103.6	110.25	101.97	110.26	103.99
2025-04	99.17	100.97	103.68	110.45	102.25	110.28	104.07
2025-05	99.16	101.18	103.93	110.52	102.28	110.23	104.07
2025-06	98.81	101.13	103.64	110.29	102.13	110.12	104.06
2025-07	98.95	101.04	103.6	110.37	102.04	110.05	104.1
2025-08	98.71	101.1	103.41	110.43	102.14	110.01	104.06
2025-09	98.63	101.16	103.51	110.41	102.05	109.93	104.11
2025-10	98.8	101.1	103.51	110.33	102.06	109.46	104.02
2025-11	98.81	101.21	103.55	110.41	102.25	109.51	104.04
2025-12	98.93	101.48	103.67	110.66	102.27	109.58	104.03
2026-01	98.98	101.65	103.76	110.84	102.74	109.73	104.14
2026-02	98.79	101.41	103.56	110.79	102.63	109.7	104.03
2026-03	98.98	101.43	103.64	111.08	102.84	110	104.17
2026-04	99.18	101.42	103.8	111.14	102.84	110.38	104.27
2026-05	99.07	101.59	103.84	111.33	102.75	110.33	104.31
2026-06	99.23	101.47	103.74	111.64	102.79	110.45	104.33
2026-07	99.11	101.25	103.13	111.65	102.67	110.5	104.31

The missing 33,000

Index the same series to February 2020 and Massachusetts is the outlier among the states Rembert named. Texas payrolls in July 2026 were 11.7 percent above that pre-pandemic month. Florida was 10.5 percent higher. The United States was up 4.3 percent, New Jersey 3.1 percent, California 2.7 percent and New York 1.3 percent. Massachusetts was 0.89 percent below — about 33,000 jobs short of 3.746 million. Against July 2019, seven years earlier, the count is essentially unchanged: 3.713 million then, 3.713 million now.

That is not a one-month story. The index sat under 100 for the entire stretch from March 2020 through July 2026. Other large states dipped in the lockdown spring and then climbed through it. Massachusetts recovered some of the 652,000 jobs it lost in April 2020 and then flattened. By 2024 and 2025 the monthly changes were already oscillating around zero. If Healey’s critics wanted a chart that does not depend on August, this is it: the Bay State’s payroll recovery ended early, and it ended short.

Horizontal bar chart ranking Texas, Florida, the United States, New Jersey, California, New York and Massachusetts by payroll change since February 2020, with Massachusetts the only negative bar. — Percent change in seasonally adjusted total nonfarm jobs from February 2020 to July 2026. Texas and Florida are more than 10 percent above their pre-pandemic levels; Massachusetts is 0.9 percent below. Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, SAE and CES, snapshot dated 24 August 2026. Sources: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, State and Area Employment; U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Current Employment Statistics.

state	vs_feb2020_pct	jul2026	feb2020
Texas	11.65	14468	12958.1
Florida	10.5	10037.3	9083.6
United States	4.31	158858	152293
New Jersey	3.13	4357.6	4225.3
California	2.67	18133	17660.9
New York	1.25	9960.7	9837.9
Massachusetts	-0.89	3712.5	3745.9

One industry is carrying the rest

The industry mix explains how a state can feel busy and still not add jobs. Private education and health services — hospitals, colleges, home care — added 12,600 jobs from July 2025 to July 2026 and accounted for 23.3 percent of the July 2026 payroll. Construction added 3,300, manufacturing 2,200, professional and business services 2,200 and government 900. Everything else leaked. Trade, transportation and utilities lost 5,700 jobs over the year. Financial activities lost 3,700, information 3,500, leisure and hospitality 2,100. Supersectors do not sum exactly to the total, because mining and logging sit in a thin leftover, but the shape is not subtle: care work expanded, offices and shops did not.

Relative to February 2020 the holes are older. Information payrolls were still 9.5 percent below that month. Manufacturing was 6.1 percent lower, leisure 5.9 percent lower, trade 4.5 percent lower. Professional and business services, the sector that ate August’s state-reported losses, was only 0.7 percent above its pre-pandemic level in July, after a 2022 peak. Nationally, the same sector in the Current Employment Statistics was 4.8 percent above February 2020. Massachusetts did not merely miss a boom. Its white-collar engine cooled earlier and harder than the country’s.

Horizontal bar chart of Massachusetts industry job changes over the year to July 2026, with private education and health as the largest gain and trade, transportation and utilities as the largest loss. — Change in Massachusetts seasonally adjusted payrolls by supersector, July 2025 to July 2026, in thousands of jobs. Private education and health added 12,600 jobs; trade, finance, information and leisure together lost more. Supersectors do not sum exactly to total nonfarm. Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, State and Area Employment. Sources: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, State and Area Employment.

industry	jul2019	feb2020	jul2025	dec2025	jul2026	yoy_thousands	yoy_pct	ytd_thousands	vs_feb2020_pct
Trade, transportation, and utilities	581.5	581.7	561.4	561.2	555.7	-5.7	-1.02	-5.5	-4.47
Financial activities	227.3	226.8	223.8	223	220.1	-3.7	-1.65	-2.9	-2.95
Information	95.7	95.6	90	88.7	86.5	-3.5	-3.89	-2.2	-9.52
Leisure and hospitality	379.7	384.8	364.1	369.4	362	-2.1	-0.58	-7.4	-5.93
Other services	140.3	141.8	139.6	138.6	139.1	-0.5	-0.36	0.5	-1.9
Government	457.5	466	474.5	472.3	475.4	0.9	0.19	3.1	2.02
Professional and business services	604.8	607.3	609.2	607.7	611.4	2.2	0.36	3.7	0.68
Manufacturing	244.3	242.9	225.9	227.3	228.1	2.2	0.97	0.8	-6.09
Construction	163.1	165.9	166	165.2	169.3	3.3	1.99	4.1	2.05
Private education and health	818.2	832.1	851.2	851.2	863.8	12.6	1.48	12.6	3.81

The output books kept climbing

Jobs are not the whole economy. Bureau of Economic Analysis quarterly accounts, which run through 2026 Q1, show Massachusetts real GDP at a $654 billion seasonally adjusted annual rate in chained 2017 dollars, up 2.85 percent from a year earlier and 17 percent above 2019 Q1. That is slower than California (3.32 percent year over year) and Texas (3.27 percent), faster than New York, Florida and New Jersey. Output in the Bay State did not stall. Payrolls did. Every peer state in this set added more real GDP than jobs over those mismatched windows; Massachusetts simply ran the gap at the extreme, pairing 2.9 percent output growth with 0.16 percent payroll growth.

That pattern is what a high-wage, high-education economy looks like when it substitutes hours, prices and mix for headcount — or when firms keep revenue while they stop hiring. The data cannot say which. They can say the political fight over “scarce job growth” is not an August hallucination. Through July 2026, on the official seasonally adjusted books, Massachusetts had not recovered its February 2020 payroll, had barely moved in a year, and was leaning on education and health to keep the total from falling. The August print, when the BLS file catches up, will be a revision to that sentence, not a new one.

Line chart of Massachusetts real GDP by quarter from 2019 Q1 through 2026 Q1, showing a 2020 drop then a climb to about 654 billion chained 2017 dollars. — Massachusetts real GDP, millions of chained 2017 dollars at a seasonally adjusted annual rate. Real output in 2026 Q1 was 17 percent above 2019 Q1 even as payrolls in July 2026 were still below February 2020. Source: U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis, quarterly state GDP, 25 June 2026 release. Sources: U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis, quarterly state GDP.

quarter	real_gdp_millions_chained_2017
2019Q1	559139.1
2019Q2	562866.6
2019Q3	569870.3
2019Q4	573431.2
2020Q1	573469.4
2020Q2	526485.9
2020Q3	564617
2020Q4	577010.9
2021Q1	581795
2021Q2	594783.2
2021Q3	604845.1
2021Q4	608256.7
2022Q1	603109.6
2022Q2	605391.1
2022Q3	604341.1
2022Q4	617040.7
2023Q1	609329.1
2023Q2	611693
2023Q3	616341.5
2023Q4	621780.9
2024Q1	623365.8
2024Q2	629680.6
2024Q3	632839.7
2024Q4	629261.6
2025Q1	635775.7
2025Q2	642813.7
2025Q3	648082.1
2025Q4	650043.7
2026Q1	653909.8

Scatter plot of six states with payroll year-over-year change on the x-axis and real GDP year-over-year change on the y-axis. Massachusetts sits near zero on jobs and around 2.9 percent on GDP; Texas is highest on both. — Year-over-year percent change in July 2026 payrolls versus 2026 Q1 real GDP. Every state shown added more output than jobs; Massachusetts combined near-zero payroll growth with 2.9 percent real-GDP growth. Payrolls are seasonally adjusted; GDP is SAAR in chained 2017 dollars. Sources: BLS SAE (through July 2026) and BEA quarterly state GDP (through 2026 Q1). Sources: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, State and Area Employment; U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis, quarterly state GDP.

state	payroll_yoy_pct	gdp_q1_yoy_pct
Massachusetts	0.16	2.85
New York	0.21	2.54
New Jersey	-0.45	1.98
Texas	1.16	3.27
California	0.63	3.32
Florida	0.41	2.39

Sources and methods

Payroll figures are seasonally adjusted total nonfarm employment from the BLS State and Area Employment program (state series) and Current Employment Statistics (U.S. total), from a 24 August 2026 snapshot whose latest month is July 2026. They are in thousands of jobs. August 2026 Massachusetts losses reported in the day’s news come from a later state release and are not in this file.

Industry detail uses SAE supersectors. They do not sum exactly to total nonfarm. Private education and health is the SAE education-and-health supersector (private). Mining and logging is omitted as a thin residual.

Indexes use February 2020 as 100. Percent changes compare July 2019, February 2020, July 2025, September 2025, December 2025 and July 2026. Missing is not treated as zero. No duplicate observations were dropped because none appeared.

Real GDP is BEA quarterly state GDP, all-industry total, millions of chained 2017 dollars at a seasonally adjusted annual rate, 25 June 2026 release through 2026 Q1. Annual 2025 GDP is a separate vintage and was not mixed into the quarterly comparisons.

Payroll growth (through July 2026) and GDP growth (through 2026 Q1) are different windows and do not imply a causal productivity story. SAE and CES are establishment surveys, not the household unemployment rates Massachusetts officials cited for ages 25 to 54.

Research completed 2026-09-22, for the September 21, 2026 news edition. The available source data may cover earlier periods; see the observation periods and source vintages above.

U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, State and Area Employment: Source 1, Source 2
U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Current Employment Statistics: Source 1, Source 2
U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis, quarterly state GDP: Source 1, Source 2

Read the related State-News edition →

Massachusetts never got its jobs back

The August drop is later than the official books

Payrolls still below the 2020 peak in Massachusetts

The missing 33,000

Six years later, Massachusetts is still short of its old payroll high

One industry is carrying the rest

Health care is hiring. The rest of the Bay State is not

The output books kept climbing

Output kept rising while the job count stalled

Jobs lagged output in every peer state — Massachusetts most of all

Sources and methods