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Briefing
The Large Role Small Businesses Play in Employment in New England
Small businesses occupy a position of economic and civic importance in New England that is not captured by any single statistic. These firms collectively employ millions of workers, anchor local communities, supply large institutions with goods and services, and are incubators of regional innovation and job growth. Using data from the US Census Bureau’s Business Dynamics Statistics, this brief quantifies the contributions that small businesses made to employment and employment growth in New England during the 2000–2023 period.
Briefing
Coming to Terms with Massachusetts’ Post-Pandemic Employment Growth
During the long economic expansion of the 2010s, employment growth in Massachusetts ran well above historic rates, ahead of the rest of New England, and on par with the national rate. Much of the job growth was in highly productive, high-paying sectors. The expansion ended with the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in early 2020, and the Massachusetts economy that has emerged in the aftermath of the crisis looks different from the state’s pre-pandemic economy. In particular, job growth trails the rest of the region and the nation. Changes in the handful of sectors that were largely responsible ...
Briefing
How Closely Do Public and Private Labor Market Data Align for New England Compared with the Nation?
The use of private labor market data for research and policy work at the Federal Reserve and elsewhere has prompted discussion about how they align with public data at the national level. However, there has been less assessment of such alignment at the regional level, where patterns may differ given distinct sample sizes, market features, and other factors. This brief’s analysis indicates that private labor market data for New England or the New England states are generally less aligned with corresponding public data compared with the alignment of private and public data for the United ...
Briefing
New England’s Rural Economy: An Overview
In New England, as in most of the country, rural communities account for a sizable majority of the land but a relatively small portion of the population and employment. Nevertheless, rural communities make important contributions to the region’s economy, particularly in the agricultural sector. This brief provides a high-level overview of rural New England, comparing it with the region’s urban counties and with the country’s rural counties.
Briefing
Declining access to health care in northern New England
Access to health care is a major concern across the northern New England states?Maine, New Hampshire, and Vermont?where rising operating costs and population loss threaten the stability of hospitals and other medical facilities that serve their surrounding rural communities. New analysis of financial data shows that many rural hospitals are operating at losses that are predictive of financial distress or even closure. Consequently, the communities served by these hospitals may be at risk of losing the benefits they provide to public health and the local economy. Addressing the financial ...
Briefing
Aging and declining populations in northern New England: is there a role for immigration?
In hundreds of communities across northern New England, the population is aging rapidly and becoming smaller. The entire country is aging, but northern New England stands out: Among the populations of all US states, those of Maine, New Hampshire, and Vermont have the top-three highest median ages, respectively. The situation is even more extreme in northern New England?s rural counties, where the populations of the smallest towns generally are substantially older than those of the rest of the region. These communities also have seen the slowest, or even negative, population growth over the ...
Briefing
Recent Trends in Residential Segregation in New England
Residential segregation in Boston has drawn considerable attention in recent years, but much less notice has been given to the issue with respect to the rest of New England. This regional brief focuses on residential segregation between all minority groups and non-Hispanic white residents in metro areas throughout the region. New England’s population is predominately non-Hispanic white; however, the region has diversified considerably since 1990, as most of the population growth has occurred among minority groups. Residential segregation by race/ethnicity declined over that same period in ...
Briefing
Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on New England Homeowners and Renters
Job losses and likely layoffs related to the COVID-19 pandemic will put many New England residents at risk of not being able to pay their mortgage or rent and needing financial assistance and state-government safeguards to remain in their homes. Economic interventions from Congress, primarily through the federal CARES Act, include direct payments to households and increased unemployment insurance benefits that are expected to provide vital support to many of these households for the next three to four months. Even with these efforts, 2 to 3 percent of New England homeowners and 9 to 13 ...
Briefing
College Towns and COVID-19: The Impact on New England
The abrupt closing of college campuses this spring due to the spread of COVID-19 upended the lives of students and their families and disrupted the higher education sector. The impact of these closures and the questions of whether and how to reopen campuses this fall have been widely discussed. Less attention has been paid to the potential consequences for the local economies of the cities and towns that depend heavily on higher education. This issue is particularly important in New England, where in many communities, colleges and universities are among the largest employers and make an ...
Briefing
The Challenge of Declining K–12 Enrollment in Northern New England
COVID-related public health concerns and declining tax revenues raised or continue to raise important questions throughout the country about when and how to restart schools and how to fund them in the near term. For communities across northern New England, there are also fundamental, longer-term concerns over declines in the student population that will still confront districts well beyond the current academic year. In every county in New Hampshire, Maine, andVermont, the number of young residents has declined over the last two decades. Northern New England is not alone in facing this ...