Interactive Map: Blue Economy Workforce in Massachusetts

The Blue Economy and Ocean Conservation

The New England Aquarium strives to understand, quantify, and reduce the negative impacts of human activities on the health of marine species and ecosystems. Our researchers develop science-based solutions and advocate for policies that balance a healthy, thriving ocean with the need for human use of the ocean, now and in the future.

To support our ocean conservation goals, continued innovation in blue economy sectors—which include iconic New England industries such as fishing and shipbuilding, as well as fields of marine robotics and ocean data sensors—is essential.  However, increasing ocean use must be done responsibly to ensure marine habitats and species are not harmed. Because of this, the Aquarium is closely monitoring the development of an environmentally responsible blue economy in Massachusetts alongside our conservation and science research efforts. To help us do this, we partnered with the UMass Amherst Donahue Institute’s Economic and Public Policy Research team to create economic heat maps of Massachusetts’ blue economy by township. The latest data available (see more information about data source below) are from 2023, and we plan to update these maps to capture changes as later data become available.

Commonwealth of Massachusetts Snapshot

Statewide, the technological blue economy covered in the maps below (see list of specific industries included in the maps) encompasses approximately 28,000 jobs. Over the ten-year period from 2013 to 2023, employment grew 11 percent. Although there may be a concentration of blue economy jobs along the shoreline, these maps also clearly show jobs throughout the state.  Employment concentration in 2023 for Massachusetts is 0.87, meaning that the state is slightly below the national average for employment concentration in the blue economy. Jobs in the blue economy earned an average of $21,695 more than the average earnings across all industries statewide, reflecting a positive sign of the state’s blue economy growth over time. The gross regional product (GRP) for these industries was over $6.1B as of 2023, indicating a three percent decline in GRP since 2013.

Dashboard Introduction

The interactive maps below display information on the technological blue economy workforce for the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. There are 30 different industries with varying levels of ocean use covered in these maps, though they are not exclusively marine-based. These industries were selected based on internal research on the blue economy for the state, and have some overlaps with similar blue economy overviews, such as the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s National Ocean Watch (ENOW) marine industry definition. However, the blue economy sectors covered below exclude adjacent industries, such as food service and accommodation. The focus here is on the industries of Massachusetts’s blue economy that are dependent on innovation and technology, such as fishing, clean energy, and marine transport (for full list, see maps).

Data Source

Jobs data used in these maps are drawn from the Lightcast industry tables, which largely uses information from the Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages, produced by the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS). Lightcast then adds data from the US Census Bureau’s American Community Survey, as well as other BLS products, to capture self-employed persons and those not covered by Unemployment Insurance. Lightcast also applies proprietary modeling to the data to overcome Census suppression where necessary.

If you have further questions about the blue economy, please contact the Aquarium’s BalanceBlue Lab.