Research Publications

This report for 2008 presents the major economic, real estate market, and demographic trends for the city and region.

The LMAT Series is a collection of reports focusing on the various applications of the program, including general discussions of the skill requirements and wage distributions associated with selected industries and the labor market as a whole. In addition, the LMAT Series will analyze the relationship between occupational requirements and worker attributes in Boston’s population.

This report re-visits previous research conducted by the BRA Research Division examining the characteristics of Metro Boston’s workforce with limited English language skills and the importance of language skills in the labor market using the newest available demographic data and updated labor market data. The current research finds that Metro Boston's workforce with limited English language skills appears to be significantly larger than it was in 2000. Moreover, the disparity in pay and the potential growth rates between occupations requiring low language skills and jobs requiring at least modest language skills stands out even more in our region than previously reported.

Boston’s job growth has been responsible for leading the economic recovery of the Massachusetts economy since the end of the national recession in the early 2000s. Boston continues to be the economic hub of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts and the center for commerce in New England – attracting workers from all over the world for jobs in finance, professional services, education and health care.

This report looks at the language challenges of the foreign-born population in Metro Boston and analyzes the language skill requirements for the current labor market, as well as projections for 2014.

The Labor Market Assessment Tool (LMAT) is an interactive computer-based program that is capable of estimating wages and the distribution of occupations by educational, skill, knowledge, and training requirements by industry for both current and future labor market scenarios

Boston's economy presented in a series of graphs showing Boston's share of Massachusetts' jobs, goods and services, and tax revenues.

This report for 2007 presents the major economic, real estate market, and demographic trends for the city and region. Much of the data in this report extends through year-end 2006 and into the first quarter of 2007.

Boston's Neighborhood Business Patterns examines patterns in private sector employment by neighborhood. It identifies Boston's leading industries, employers and the geographical location of businesses and jobs in the city. The intention of this report is to provide an overview of business concentration patterns at both the city and neighborhood levels and to provide detailed economic data that would further facilitate the implementation of informed policy making.

Boston’s economy is once more showing signs of steady growth and of recovery from a regional economic recession after four years of a slow economy.