MetroWest recovered well from the 2008-09 recession, declining from a peak of 7.5% unemployment to a rate under 3% in 2019. However, the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic spiked 2020 unemployment rates to 7.9%, in line with similar statewide and nationwide jumps in unemployment. While robust hiring has returned across the nation, it remains to be seen whether MetroWest’s rate will return to pre-pandemic levels.  

The share of jobs by sector is a key indicator of the structure of the economy in a region. The largest sectors in MetroWest in 2020 were Professional and Business Services, with 21% of jobs, followed by Trade, Transportation and Utilities (15%), Health Care and Social Assistance (13%), Financial Activities (10%), and Government, at about 8.8%.  Compared to the state as a whole and the nation, MetroWest has a higher proportion of jobs in Professional and Business Services and a lower proportion in Leisure and Hospitality and in Government. In other sectors, MetroWest is similar to Massachusetts as a whole.

Among large sectors, MetroWest has seen the greatest growth in the Financial Activities (42%), Healthcare and Social Assistance (40%) and Professional and Business Services (30%) sectors.

The biggest decline among major sectors was in Manufacturing, where jobs fell 38%. Some smaller sectors had large gains or declines: Agriculture, with 0.2% of total jobs, grew 23% since 2001, and Education, with 6% of all jobs, grew 27%. Trends in MetroWest were broadly similar to statewide and national trends, excepting for higher growth in Agriculture and lower growth in Education.

Yearly salaries in MetroWest averaged $86,400 in 2020. The highest-paid sectors in the region were Information ($150,000), Professional and Business Services ($133,000), Manufacturing ($108,000), and Financial Activities ($110,000). The lowest-paid sector was Leisure and Hospitality ($30,000). This was similar to the state and nation, where the Financial Activities and Information sectors were the two highest-earning sectors.

In MetroWest, as in the state and nation, women’s earnings tended to lag men’s earnings. In 2016-20, women in the MetroWest region earned 66 cents for every dollar earned by men (a female-to-male earnings ratio of 0.66). This ratio was up 14% from 58 cents in 2000.

MetroWest has significant disparities in racial/ethnic rates of business ownership. In 2017, the most recent year for the data, 80% of the region’s businesses were owned by white owners, approximately 8% were owned by Asian owners, with just under 2% owned by Hispanic owners and 1% owned by African American owners. These disparities parallel similar state and national disparities in ownership.