Above: Optical metrology company Optikos Corporation in Wakefield, Massachusetts, which expanded its facility in April 2021. (Image Source: Optikos)
Manufacturing employment in Massachusetts inched up over the past year, according to MNI, compiler and publisher of comprehensive business profiles of the nation’s nearly 400,000 manufacturing companies. According to MNI’s survey of the state’s manufacturers, Massachusetts added a net 881 jobs or roughly 0.2% between August 2021 and August 2022.
This follows a significant jump in the state’s manufacturing workforce as the state recovered from the pandemic. Between August 2019 and August 2021, manufacturers in Massachusetts added 10,179 positions or roughly 2.8% to the state’s industrial workforce.
Massachusetts is currently home to 6,919 manufacturers employing 366,636 according to MNI data.
The instruments/related products sector, which includes medical instruments and measuring devise, has surpassed electronics and industrial machinery as the state’s top sector, employing 50,774. Over the past two years, that sector has grown by 9%, adding more than 4,000 jobs as more high-tech industrial companies flock to the state to tap into the state’s educated workforce.
Second-ranked industrial machinery accounts for 49,696 jobs, down 2.7%, while electronics manufacturing accounts for another 42,509 workers, virtually unchanged in the past year.
Growing Massachusetts sub-industries include commercial printing, which saw employment rise 44% during the survey year. Additional subsector posting growth included pumps & pumping equipment, up 19%; prefabricated metal buildings, up 18%; plating & polishing, up 7%; search & navigation equipment, up 3%; and electronic components, up 2%.
These were offset by declines in secondary nonferrous metals (-29%); coated paper (-9%); metal stampings (-8%); and meat packing plants (-10%).
MNI’s city data reveals Boston ranks as Massachusetts’ top city by number of industrial jobs, home to 17,664 workers, up one percent over the year. Second-ranked Cambridge accounts for 14,523 jobs, also up one percent. Employment in third-ranked Hopkinton held steady over the year at 10,982 jobs, while Andover saw a 1.6% decline in industrial jobs and is now home to 11,158 workers.
Other top manufacturing cities in Massachusetts include Waltham (9,351 jobs); Worcester (8,052 jobs); and Marlborough (7,551 jobs).
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