BPDA releases 2017 report on Boston’s economy

May 11, 2017

The Boston Planning & Development Agency’s (BPDA) Research Division recently released its 2017 report on Boston’s economy. The annual report describes conditions and trends in Boston's economy, focusing on economic growth, employment and wages, and the real estate market.

• Growth in Boston’s economy by 3.6 percent between 2014 and 2015 as measured by Gross City Product (GCP). This builds on 3.8 percent growth the prior year, running a point ahead of the growth rate of the overall U.S. economy.
• Boston outperformed both Massachusetts and the nation with annual job growth of 2.7 percent between 2014 and 2015. Total employment rose in 2015 to 757,344, the highest level since employment data became available in 1969.
• Boston’s unemployment has continued to fall from an annual rate of 4.4 percent in 2015 to 3.5 percent in 2016, the lowest since 2000. Boston’s unemployment rate for fourth quarter 2016 was below three percent.
• Over 3.2 million construction man hours were worked in 2016 on Article 80 development projects, an increase of 9.6 percent and almost 280,000 man hours over 2015.3 Building permits in 2016 generated $52.3 million in revenues.