Massachusetts Ranks Last in New Business Formation for 2024-2025 as 182,000 Residents Leave
Updated
Updated · The Boston Globe · Aug 4
Massachusetts Ranks Last in New Business Formation for 2024-2025 as 182,000 Residents Leave
1 articles · Updated · The Boston Globe · Aug 4
Summary
Massachusetts finished dead last nationwide in new business formations as a share of private employment in both 2024 and 2025, a fresh sign that startup creation and job growth are weakening.
182,000 more residents left the state than arrived from other states between 2020 and 2025, while private-sector job growth over the past five years lagged 41 states.
38% higher Boston-area home listing prices since February 2020, rents up more than 30%, and grocery prices up 25% have compounded a broken housing market and high-tax cost pressures.
Boston’s post-pandemic model has also been hit by remote work, high office vacancies, a glut of lab space, and tighter federal pressure on research funding, universities, and foreign-born talent.
The report argues Massachusetts still has strengths in biotech, universities, and venture capital, but needs faster housing, business, and public-private policy action to avoid further erosion.
While national startups surge in 2026, why has a historic innovation hub like Massachusetts plummeted to dead last in new business creation?
Despite alarming out-migration and empty offices, what hidden economic forces are keeping this state's labor productivity ranked among the highest in America?
If Massachusetts desperately needs 60,000 new workers annually, how can it survive when restrictive building codes make housing them nearly impossible?