Healthcare social workers job market in Massachusetts
Industry trends, wages and hiring signals.
The headline
Massachusetts industry employment changed 1.6 percentage points below the U.S. benchmark
A data-driven view of the industries that employ Healthcare social workers in Massachusetts.
Occupation pay
What Healthcare social workers earn in Massachusetts
BLS OEWS occupation-level pay estimates for this role — separate from the industry wage trends used elsewhere in this report.
Median annual wage
$76,440Massachusetts- Middle 50% of published wages
- $60,300 – $92,110
- U.S. median annual wage
- $67,880
- Reference period
- May 2025
The middle 50% is the 25th-to-75th percentile wage range, not an experience-level band. Suppressed or unavailable BLS values remain unpublished rather than being estimated.
Pay around Massachusetts
How median pay varies by metro area
Published BLS OEWS metro estimates for Healthcare social workers, compared with the Massachusetts median of $76,440.
Boston-Cambridge-Newton, MA-NH$78,410+2.6% vs. state
Barnstable Town, MA$78,160+2.3% vs. state
Worcester, MA$74,520−2.5% vs. state
Providence-Warwick, RI-MA$74,350−2.7% vs. state
Amherst Town-Northampton, MA$72,720−4.9% vs. state
Springfield, MA$68,150−10.8% vs. state
View 1 more published metro area
Pittsfield, MA$59,110−22.7% vs. state
Areas are ordered by published median wage for readability, not as an overall job-market ranking. The vertical marker is the Massachusetts median. Some BLS metropolitan areas cross state lines, so a metro estimate can cover workers in more than one state.
Verified snapshot
Market at a Glance
Key changes in Massachusetts’s weighted industry mix.
Percentage-point gaps use the original published values and are rounded once; subtracting the rounded percentages can give a slightly different result.
Published coverage: 80,327 represented establishments, 83.34% of the published industry mix.
Local research
What the data shows for healthcare social workers in Massachusetts
Findings describe the published observation periods shown below. Research published Oct 10, 2026.
This occupation is more concentrated in the state
Using the national share of employment as the benchmark, healthcare social workers have a published location quotient of 1.64 in Massachusetts in OEWS May 2025. Their state employment share is 1.64 times the national share. The state estimate is 7,220 jobs, 3.8% of the national employment estimate for this occupation. It represents 1.98 jobs per thousand jobs in the state's OEWS employment universe. The comparison describes where existing employment is concentrated, not current hiring or future growth.
OEWS May 2025 · BLS OEWSOEWS employment estimates describe covered wage-and-salary jobs and exclude self-employed workers; location quotients do not measure vacancies or worker demand.
Published median pay is above the U.S. median
OEWS May 2025 records a state median annual wage of $76,440 for healthcare social workers in Massachusetts. Against the national median of $67,880, that is 12.6% higher. A median describes the middle of the distribution and does not include a living-cost adjustment.
OEWS May 2025 · BLS OEWSPay differs widely between metro areas
The median wage at the upper end of Massachusetts's metro comparison is 32.7% above the lower end in OEWS May 2025. The 6 published estimates on a shared wage basis extend from Pittsfield, MA at $59,110 to Boston-Cambridge-Newton, MA-NH at $78,410. The wage difference alone does not account for living costs or job availability.
OEWS May 2025 · BLS OEWSMetro estimates may include areas in neighboring states. The comparison covers published metro estimates, not every part of the state.
Findings describe published data and do not establish causes. Methodology
Employment trends
Massachusetts industry employment over time
Year-over-year change in the weighted industries. The U.S. line is the latest-quarter benchmark because a comparable national quarterly history is not published here.
- Massachusetts · 2026 Q1+0.3%
- U.S. · latest-quarter benchmark+1.9%
The chart will load automatically. Published values remain available in this report.
View every published value
| Quarter | Massachusetts | Coverage |
|---|---|---|
| 2024 Q2 | +1.7% | 100% |
| 2024 Q3 | +1.4% | 100% |
| 2024 Q4 | +1.4% | 100% |
| 2025 Q1 | +1.4% | 100% |
| 2025 Q2 | +1.1% | 100% |
| 2025 Q3 | +0.8% | 100% |
| 2025 Q4 | +0.5% | 100% |
| 2026 Q1 | +0.3% | 100% |
How to read this chart
State trend and national reference
The solid line follows Massachusetts’s published year-over-year industry employment changes by quarter. The dashed U.S. line is a latest-quarter reference, not a second time series.
- Published quarters
- 8
- Earliest quarter
- 2024 Q2
- Latest quarter
- 2026 Q1
- U.S. benchmark
- +1.9%
Quarters with no published value are omitted rather than interpolated.
Industry context
Where Healthcare social workers Work
The occupation mix determines which Massachusetts industries are weighted into this view.
| Industry group | Occupation mix | Employment change | Establishments | Avg. weekly industry wage |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Private education and health services | 83.2% | +0.5% | 80,327 | $1,463 |
| State and local | 6.3% | +0.3% | 6,563 | $1,660 |
| Professional and business services | 4.6% | -1.3% | 61,083 | $3,549 |
| Financial activities | 4.0% | -0.8% | 20,244 | $5,744 |
| Other services | 1.6% | -0.2% | 23,796 | $1,070 |
| Trade, transportation, and utilities | 0.1% | -1.7% | 40,443 | $1,509 |
Which industries are growing?
2 weighted industries are growing
Only weighted industries with a published positive Massachusetts employment change are listed.
- Private education and health services+0.5%
- State and local+0.3%
The remaining weighted industries published a flat or negative change in January to March 2026.
Current Massachusetts context
Current Massachusetts Market Signals
Statewide indicators for all occupations in Massachusetts. They are not Healthcare social workers demand and are not part of the Job Market Health score.
Statewide job postings
Indeed job postings · Massachusetts
Recent hiring-demand context · separate from the health score
Total postings index (seasonally adjusted) by observation date · baseline 100
The chart will load automatically. Published values remain available in this report.
View values: Indeed postings index
| Observation date | Index (Feb 2020 = 100) |
|---|---|
| Jul 24, 2026 | 85.51 |
| Jul 31, 2026 | 85.85 |
| Aug 7, 2026 | 85.54 |
| Aug 14, 2026 | 85.21 |
| Aug 21, 2026 | 85.51 |
| Aug 28, 2026 | 85.72 |
| Sep 4, 2026 | 86.50 |
| Sep 11, 2026 | 87.14 |
| Sep 18, 2026 | 87.45 |
| Sep 25, 2026 | 87.46 |
| Oct 2, 2026 | 87.60 |
| Oct 9, 2026 | 87.53 |
| Oct 16, 2026 | 87.82 |
| Oct 23, 2026 | 88.29 |
This is statewide demand across all occupations, not demand for this specific job. Postings are not a count of vacancies or hires, and Indeed does not cover the entire labor market.
Source: Indeed Hiring Lab · CC BY 4.0. Seven-day average, seasonally adjusted; publisher refreshes weekly and may revise history. Retrieved Nov 1, 2026 · saved source copy. JobMarketHealth calculates the displayed changes and samples weekly observations for the chart.
Statewide layoff notices
Statewide layoff-notice filings
Massachusetts statewide13 notices in this source
Notice dates from Aug 5, 2026 to Nov 2, 2026 (UTC), a rolling 90-calendar-day period.
What this means: These are statewide totals from notices dated in this period in Massachusetts’s official tracking system. Reported positions are the counts published in those notices, not a count of people confirmed to have lost their jobs. No employer is identified.
Notices describe planned workforce changes, not confirmed job losses. Notices may be amended or withdrawn. This statewide context is not occupation-specific and does not affect the Job Market Health score. Massachusetts’s state tracking system also records smaller Rapid Response events that fall below federal WARN thresholds, so it is not a list of federal WARN filings only.
MassHire Department of Career Services About WARN data
Source last checked
Career context
Related occupations
Related roles from the occupation’s published O*NET profile.
Questions answered by this release
Healthcare social workers in Massachusetts FAQs
Each answer is limited to what QCEW 2026 Q1 actually publishes for this state.
Is employment growing for Healthcare social workers in Massachusetts?
The available QCEW measure is not direct occupation employment. Employment across the Massachusetts industries weighted to Healthcare social workers changed +0.3% year over year in January to March 2026, compared with +1.9% nationwide.
Are wages for Healthcare social workers rising in Massachusetts?
QCEW does not publish pay for Healthcare social workers in this view. Average weekly wages across the weighted industries changed +1.1% year over year; that must not be read as an occupation salary change.
How complete is this Massachusetts industry view?
The three core state trends each meet the site’s coverage floor; the minimum published coverage is 100% of the occupation’s industry mix.
Does this page show current Healthcare social workers openings?
No. QCEW measures industry employment, establishments and wages. Any postings, news or WARN figures shown here are statewide context and are not occupation-specific openings.
Methodology & sourcesQCEW 2026 Q1 · coverage 100% · full evidence record
Methodology & Sources
Derived by JobMarketHealth from BLS QCEW + published occupation industry mix. This is occupation-weighted industry context, not direct occupation employment and not a count of current job openings.
- Occupation
- Healthcare social workers
- SOC code
- 21-1022
- State
- Massachusetts
- QCEW release label
- QCEW 2026 Q1
- Data period
- 2026 Q1
- State industry employment, year over year
- +0.3%State data coverage 100%
- U.S. benchmark, year over year
- +1.9%
- Difference from U.S. benchmark
- -1.6 percentage pointsPercentage-point gaps use the original published values and are rounded once; subtracting the rounded percentages can give a slightly different result.
- Establishments, year over year
- +4.1%State data coverage 100%
- Average weekly industry wage, year over year
- +1.1%State data coverage 100%
- Industry mix vintage
- EP-2025-2035
- BLS publication date
- Aug 28, 2026
- Source verification
- Verified against the committed source snapshotVerified Sep 17, 2026
- Canonical record URL
- https://jobmarkethealth.com/occupations/healthcare-social-workers/massachusetts#evidence-record
- Derived by
- JobMarketHealth from BLS QCEW + published occupation industry mix
MethodologyBLS QCEWHow to citeQCEW state context release, 2026 Q1
Weighted industry conditions are not direct occupation employment, occupation wages, current openings or a state-level Job Market Health score. No causal explanation is inferred.