Massachusetts

Massachusetts Exports & Foreign Investment

 

In 2023, Massachusetts exported a record $35.2 billion of goods to the world.  In 2021, exports from Massachusetts supported an estimated 109 thousand jobs.

 

Exports from Massachusetts and Jobs

• Massachusetts was the 18^th largest state exporter of goods in 2023.
• In 2023, Massachusetts goods exports were $35.2 billion, an increase of 31 percent ($8.4 billion) from its export level in 2013 (latest data available).
• Goods exports accounted for 4.8 percent of Massachusetts GDP in 2023 (latest data available).
• Massachusetts goods exports in 2021 (latest data available) supported an estimated 109 thousand jobs. Nationally, jobs supported by goods exports pay up to an estimated 18 percent above the national average.

Manufacturing Exports from Massachusetts and Jobs

• In 2023, Massachusetts exported $33.9 billion of manufactured products.
• Massachusetts exports of manufactured products supported an estimated 103 thousand jobs in 2021 (latest data available).
• The state's largest manufacturing export category is chemicals, which accounted for $10.6 billion of Massachusetts's total goods exports in 2023.
• Other top manufacturing exports are computer and electronic products ($6.4 billion), machinery, except electrical ($5.7 billion), miscellaneous manufactured commodities ($3.3 billion), and electrical equipment, appliances and components ($2.1 billion).

 

Exports Sustain Thousands of Massachusetts Businesses many of which are SMEs

• A total of 9,781 companies exported from Massachusetts locations in 2022 (latest data available). Of those, 8,595 (88 percent) were small and medium sized enterprises with fewer than 500 employees.
•  Small and medium-sized firms generated 28.4 percent of Massachusetts's total exports of goods in 2022.

 

Massachusetts Depends on World Markets

• The state’s largest market was Belgium. Massachusetts exported $4.9 billion in goods to Belgium in 2023, representing 14 percent of the state’s total goods exports.
• Belgium was followed by China ($3.3 billion), Canada ($3.3 billion), Mexico ($2.7 billion), and Germany ($2.3 billion).
• Massachusetts’s exports to major world areas included:

 

• 27 percent of Massachusetts’s goods exports ($9.6 billion) in 2023 went to current FTA partners. 

Agriculture in Massachusetts depends on Exports

• Massachusetts is the country’s 45^th largest agricultural exporting state, shipping $226 million in domestic agricultural exports abroad in 2022 (latest data available according to the U.S. Dept. of Agriculture).^[1]
• Top Agricultural exports were:

 

International Investment Creates Jobs in Massachusetts

• In 2021 (latest data available), foreign-controlled companies employed 228,000 Massachusetts workers. Major sources of foreign investment in Massachusetts included the United Kingdom, the Netherlands and France. 
• Foreign investment in Massachusetts was responsible for 7.2 percent of the state's total private-industry employment in 2021.

Massachusetts’s Major Metropolitan Areas Benefit from Exporting

In 2022 (latest data available), the following metropolitan areas in Massachusetts recorded goods exports: Boston-Cambridge-Newton ($33.1 billion), Providence-Warwick ($7.2 billion), Pittsfield ($343.6 million), and Barnstable Town ($149.1 million).