Suffolk County, Massachusetts

• Income premium: Households earn well above the national median, supporting strong retail and housing markets.
• Below the state median: Median household income runs $8,329 (8.0%) under the Massachusetts median, so statewide income averages overstate local household buying power.
• Cost of living erodes income: Local prices run 8.3% above the national average, so the nominal median of $95,631 is worth $88,302 at national average prices. BEA publishes price parity at metro level, not county level.
• Elevated poverty: At 16.2%, the rate is in economically distressed territory and supports federal funding narratives (CDFI, NMTC, EDA).
• Talent advantage: Bachelor's-or-higher attainment exceeds the national average by 14.9 pts, supports knowledge-economy and tech attraction.
• Young population: Median age of 34 is materially below the U.S. norm, a workforce pipeline asset.

• Largest private-sector industry: Health Care and Social Assistance employs 153,540 workers (27.4% of tracked sectors), at an average wage of $96,483. Every industry figure on this page is private sector; government employs a further 80,152 and is counted separately.
• Economic scale: Regional GDP of $190.8B (2024).
• Wage stratification: Finance and Insurance averages $292,534 while Accommodation and Food Services averages $44,830, a 6.5x spread in the same local economy, with implications for workforce development and talent strategy.

• Top specialization: Securities, Commodity Contracts, Investments concentrates at 6.75x the national norm, top-decile concentration, the kind of signature sector that defines a region's economic identity to site selectors.
• Cluster depth: 11 sub-sectors register LQ ≥ 1.5, and no single source of demand accounts for more than 30.8% of the employment across them, the largest being health care economy. Demand reaches this base from more than one market rather than from a single one.
• Attraction whitespace: 6 sub-sectors register LQ < 0.5 with at least 50 employed and clear the local siting screen on energy cost, freight access and land base, candidates for diversification or recruitment depending on labor-market fit.

• Stretched market: Home value to income ratio of 7.4x is well above the ~4.1x national average; attainable workforce housing may be a recruitment friction.
• Renter-majority market: 36.5% owner-occupied; flexible labor mobility but consider home-buying pipeline if attracting families.
• Rent affordability gap: None of the 5 HUD Fair Market Rent bedroom sizes sit below what a household on the median renter income of $69,876 can pay without cost burden (~$1,747/mo), and 49.4% of renter households are already cost-burdened, 24.8% severely so; workforce housing cost burden warrants attention.

• Healthy participation: 69.8% labor force participation reflects a steady, available local workforce.
• Talent pipeline: the 6 largest of 26 institutions in Suffolk County award 32,812 credentials a year. Employers drawing from a wider labor shed should read this alongside institutions outside the county, which this page does not aggregate.

Suffolk County shows strong potential for securities, commodity contracts, investments attraction, with a 6.75x concentration and 34,910 jobs in this sub-sector. It ranks in the top decile nationally.

The concentrated base spans securities, commodity contracts, investments, scenic and sightseeing transportation, and air transportation, and no single source of demand accounts for more than 30.8% of the employment across them, the largest being health care economy. Supply-chain recruitment has more than one demand base to work from.