Metro Job Market Pulse · General Market Conditions · September 2026
General Market Conditions Labor Market Report: Worcester, MA MSA — September 2026
Worcester leads Massachusetts in jobs, but one layoff tests the trend.
Worcester posted the state's strongest year-over-year job growth at 1.9 percent, yet a 639-worker Community Healthlink WARN notice and a county unemployment rate of 4.5 percent complicate the picture.
Free archive edition. Published by WageScape as sent to subscribers; data as of September 2026.
Key indicators
- Worcester YoY job growth: +1.9% — Highest among MA metros; Amherst-Northampton +1.7%, Springfield +1.1%
- Worcester County unemployment: 4.5% — vs 4.3% statewide, 4.1% national (August 2026)
- Largest MA WARN filing in 2026: 639 workers — Community Healthlink, Worcester/Leominster, filed 8/10/2026
- Worcester avg weekly wage: $1,506 — vs $1,654 U.S. average (Q1 2026)
Key takeaways
Worcester outpaces every other Massachusetts metro on job growth.
The 1.9 percent year-over-year gain leads Amherst-Northampton (1.7 percent) and Springfield (1.1 percent), even as all seven major state MSAs shed jobs month-over-month in August. That divergence between annual and monthly readings suggests underlying strength that short-term volatility may be obscuring.
A single large layoff complicates the growth narrative.
Community Healthlink's 639-worker WARN notice, filed in August, was the largest in Massachusetts this year and lands directly in the Worcester/Leominster area. Healthcare accounted for the most WARN notices statewide (20), making this less an isolated event than a visible instance of broader sector churn.
Local wages are running below both state and national averages.
Worcester's first-quarter average weekly wage of $1,506 trails the U.S. average of $1,654 by roughly 9 percent, a gap that may reflect the metro's industry mix relative to higher-wage Boston-area professional services. For commerce leaders, this cost differential is a structural feature of the local business climate, not a recent shift.
Public-sector and healthcare stability diverge from the statewide pattern.
Massachusetts job growth has concentrated almost entirely in health care and education even as trade, information, financial activities, and leisure collectively lost nearly 17,000 positions this year. Worcester's above-average job growth appears consistent with this statewide sector tilt, suggesting its economic base is better aligned with where growth is actually occurring.
Median advertised pay by role — Worcester, MA MSA
| Role | 25th percentile | Median advertised pay | 75th percentile | Metro trend | National median |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Retail Sales Associate | $30,881 | $35,100 | $38,480 | Stable | $33,325 |
| Retail Cashier | $30,666 | $35,100 | $37,029 | Stable | $31,200 |
| Warehouse/Fulfillment Associate | $34,923 | $40,095 | $43,160 | Moderate decline | $38,000 |
| CDL Truck Driver | $60,000 | $78,000 | $85,000 | Moderate increase | $78,000 |
| Delivery Driver | $32,745 | $36,160 | $41,600 | Moderate decline | $34,344 |
| Construction Laborer | $36,929 | $42,000 | $45,760 | Moderate increase | $40,560 |
| Electrician | $58,319 | $76,694 | $83,200 | Moderate decline | $71,404 |
| Manufacturing Production Worker/Assembler | $35,532 | $41,600 | $44,720 | Stable | $39,520 |
| Customer Service Representative | $35,008 | $39,635 | $45,134 | Stable | $39,520 |
| Food Service Worker | $32,654 | $35,360 | $37,440 | Moderate decline | $33,756 |
| Certified Nursing Assistant / Home Health Aide | $39,520 | $45,323 | $48,650 | Stable | $41,106 |
| Administrative Assistant/Office Clerk | $34,759 | $44,511 | $49,920 | Moderate increase | $43,680 |
| HVAC Technician | $64,719 | $78,094 | $93,600 | Significant increase | $70,720 |
| Registered Nurse | $92,510 | $114,088 | $124,255 | Moderate increase | $102,581 |
| Software Engineer | $119,401 | $153,652 | $170,000 | Stable | $153,652 |
| Data Engineer | $99,248 | $145,605 | $159,248 | Moderate increase | $139,500 |
| Accountant | $59,565 | $71,933 | $80,303 | Significant increase | $72,182 |
| Financial Analyst | $74,743 | $98,476 | $104,845 | Stable | $94,782 |
| HR Generalist/Manager | $55,949 | $80,532 | $86,509 | Significant increase | $75,000 |
| Marketing Specialist | $43,693 | $58,870 | $70,614 | Stable | $62,354 |
| Operations Manager * | $73,750 | $94,078 | $119,583 | Moderate increase | $85,216 |
| Elementary/Secondary School Teacher | $49,000 | $63,861 | $70,304 | Moderate increase | $56,731 |
| Account Manager | $63,400 | $92,309 | $115,000 | Significant increase | $92,749 |
| Warehouse Manager * | $57,231 | $108,597 | $113,717 | Stable | $75,000 |
| Business Analyst | $83,690 | $99,106 | $110,919 | Significant increase | $98,279 |
* State-level figure shown where metro postings were too few.
WageScape's median is calibrated to correct for spurious low-value postings (reported as the 60th percentile of raw advertised pay). Download: CSV · JSON
Industry snapshot
| Sector | Median advertised pay | Pay trend | Postings trend |
|---|---|---|---|
| Construction | $83,200 | Significant increase | Significant increase |
| Manufacturing | $106,294 | Significant increase | Significant increase |
| Retail Trade | $46,800 | Significant increase | Significant increase |
| Transportation, Warehousing & Utilities | $62,400 | Moderate decline | Significant increase |
| Information | $122,500 | Significant increase | Significant increase |
| Financial Activities | $108,860 | Significant increase | Significant increase |
| Professional & Business Services | $85,703 | Moderate increase | Significant increase |
| Education & Health Services | $63,440 | Stable | Significant increase |
| Leisure & Hospitality | $38,480 | Stable | Significant increase |
| Government | $72,660 | Significant increase | Significant increase |
Local market conditions
Worcester remains the standout performer among Massachusetts metros, posting the largest year-over-year job gain in the state at 1.9 percent even as all seven major Massachusetts MSAs lost jobs between July and August, a divergence that suggests localized resilience against a statewide cooling trend. That momentum sits alongside a 4.5 percent county unemployment rate, above both the state's 4.3 percent and the national 4.1 percent, and a notable August WARN filing from Community Healthlink affecting 639 healthcare workers in the Worcester/Leominster area.
What it means
Worcester's outperformance on year-over-year job growth, even amid a statewide contraction, signals the metro's economic base — anchored in health care, education, and professional services — is proving more durable than Boston's tech-heavy economy, which saw Professional, Scientific, and Technical Services employment fall 5.8 percent statewide. Commerce leaders evaluating expansion or investment timing should weigh this county-level resilience against the countervailing signal of the Community Healthlink layoff, which indicates sector-specific softness even within an otherwise growing local economy; current conditions suggest monitoring whether displaced healthcare workers are absorbed locally before reading August's job growth figure as an unambiguous trend.
Looking ahead
Expected release: September unemployment data for both Massachusetts and the Worcester metro publish October 16 and October 20 respectively, which will show whether August's county-level softening (4.5 percent) persisted or reversed.
Emerging pressure point: Healthcare carried the most WARN notices of any Massachusetts industry this year, and Worcester just absorbed the state's largest single filing. Watch whether additional healthcare-sector notices emerge locally in the next reporting cycle, which would suggest a pattern rather than an isolated event.
Worth watching: National wage growth has slipped to 3.0 percent against 3.4 percent inflation, the first sustained real-wage decline in two years. If that gap persists into Worcester-area pay data, it could begin to show up in local consumer spending indicators tracked by commerce groups.
Potential inflection point: Massachusetts' Professional, Scientific, and Technical Services sector has contracted 5.8 percent statewide. Whether Worcester's more diversified base continues to outperform Boston's tech-heavy economy over the next two reporting cycles will test if this month's divergence is durable or temporary.
Methodology
Advertised pay from active employer job postings, not survey data. WageScape's median is calibrated to correct for spurious low-value postings: distribution analysis shows roughly the lowest 10% of raw values are erroneous entries, so the reported median is the 60th percentile of raw advertised pay. WageScape observes 98% of U.S. job openings daily.
Free to read and cite with attribution to WageScape. Terms of use.