Are Boston jobs growing?

Posted on March 28, 2018

A new Careerbuilder survey takes a look at Boston jobs, among other areas, to see how the city continues to be affected by the recession.

The last recession in the U.S. – more than 10 years ago – lasted only two years, but its impact on the U.S. workforce is still being felt. While the country as a whole boasts 6,692,837 more jobs in 2017 than in 2007, some states still haven’t fully recovered, and many of the occupations that are growing require workers to get additional training and/or education to fill them.

The following are seven states that had fewer jobs in 2017 than they did in 2007:

• Alabama: 62,637 fewer jobs – 3 percent – in 2017 than in 2007
• West Virginia: 33,428 fewer jobs – 4 percent – in 2017 than in 2007
• Mississippi: 26,666 fewer jobs – 2 percent – in 2017 than in 2007
• New Mexico: 23,422 fewer jobs – 2 percent – in 2017 than in 2007
• Connecticut: 19,781 fewer jobs – 1 percent – in 2017 than in 2007
• Wyoming: 13,257 fewer jobs – 4 percent – in 2017 than in 2007
• Illinois: 11,682 fewer jobs – 0.2 percent – in 2017 than in 2007

States That Have Grown the Most Since 2007
Of the 40 states that had more jobs in 2017 than they did in 2007, 14 have outpaced the overall national job growth rate. The seven states with the largest net increase in jobs since 2007 are:

• Texas: 1,699,505 more jobs – 15 percent – in 2017 than in 2007
• California: 1,239,911 more jobs – 7 percent – in 2017 than in 2007
• New York: 597,961 more jobs – 6 percent – in 2017 than in 2007
• Florida: 455,134 more jobs – 5 percent – in 2017 than in 2007
• Washington: 300,885 more jobs – 9 percent – in 2017 than in 2007
• Colorado: 293,160 more jobs – 11 percent – in 2017 than in 2007
• Massachusetts: 288,446 more jobs – 8 percent – in 2017 than in 2007

Occupations That Have Grown the Most Since 2007 Nationally
The recession had wide ranging effects, and no corner of the workforce was completely unaffected. Still, while the country overall has 4 percent more jobs than it did in 2007, some occupations have fared considerably better.