The county economy from official statistics, with source and year on every table.
Click any dot to open that city: jobs, pay, rent, commute, county economy and climate. Dot size follows population; colours follow the state flag.
By AtiveSite · Published 07/11/2026 · Updated 07/11/2026 · Every figure is linked to its source below.
Essex County is a county of Massachusetts with 813,054 residents. Its economy produced $60,733 million in 2024 (ranked #5 of 14 counties) and had 323,694 jobs with an average annual pay of $75,548 (#5 for pay). The unemployment rate was 4.3% in 2026M09. It is part of the Boston-Cambridge-Newton, MA-NH metropolitan area (central county).
Essex County produced about $60,733 million of goods and services in 2024, which is 7.8% of the combined output of the 14 counties of Massachusetts that BEA reports (about 11.5% of the state's population lives here), and ranks it 5th of 14 on that measure. Per resident that is $74,697, 32% below the state average; the average for all counties of the state taken together is $110,522. In current dollars output grew 4.3% from 2023 to 2024, before adjusting for inflation.
BLS counts 323,694 jobs located in Essex County on average in 2024, spread over 28,628 employer sites (about 11 jobs per site). That is 0.40 jobs for every resident, below the 0.44 of the typical county in Massachusetts, which tells you whether the county is a place people mostly commute to for work or a place they commute from. The average annual pay per job was $75,548, 20% below the average of all counties in the state ($75,548 against $94,544). Average pay is total wages divided by jobs, so it is pulled up by high earners and counts part-time jobs as whole jobs; it is not the pay of a typical worker. The number of jobs rose 0.6% from 2023 to 2024.
The three largest private industries are health care and social assistance (22.7% of private jobs, $61,998 a year on average), manufacturing (14.0% of private jobs, $109,328 a year on average), retail trade (12.4% of private jobs, $42,998 a year on average). Together they hold 49.1% of private-sector jobs. Among industries with at least 3% of jobs, the best paying is professional and technical services at $135,143 a year, followed by wholesale trade ($120,899). The county is specialised in an industry: manufacturing (1.5 times the US share, 39,526 jobs). A location quotient above 1 means an industry employs a larger share of workers here than in the whole country, so these are the industries where local employers compete hardest for skills. Several of the biggest employers pay well below the county average: retail trade ($42,998), accommodation and food services ($32,136). Jobs there are plentiful but the pay is lower than the headline average suggests.
In 2026M09 the unemployment rate in Essex County was 4.3%, 4% above the average of the state's counties (4.3% against 4.1%). The labour force (people working or looking for work) numbered 439,969. Over the last 12 months it ranged from 4.3% (2026M04) to 5.3% (2026M01); the latest month is preliminary and BLS revises it. These county rates are not seasonally adjusted, so compare the same month across years.
The median household income was $101,883 (ACS 2020–2024), about the same as the state median ($101,883 against $103,960). The guide covers 13 cities with this as the main county: Lynn, Lawrence, Haverhill, Peabody, Salem, Beverly, Gloucester, Saugus. Open any of them for rent, home values, commuting and climate. Within the county, median rent runs from $1,411 in Gloucester to $2,676 in Lynnfield, so where you live matters as much as which county you pick.
Counties close to Essex County in output are Norfolk County, Worcester County, Plymouth County, Bristol County. Compare their jobs, pay and unemployment on their own pages.
| Measure ⇅ | Value ⇅ | Rank among the 14 counties of Massachusetts ⇅ |
|---|---|---|
| Population | 813,054 | 3 of 14 |
| GDP 2024 | $60,733 million | 5 of 14 |
| GDP per resident | $74,697 | 7 of 14 |
| Jobs (QCEW 2024) | 323,694 | 5 of 14 |
| Average annual pay | $75,548 | 5 of 14 |
| Job change vs 2023 | +0.6% | 3 of 14 |
| Unemployment rate (lower is better) | 4.3% | 12 of 14 |
| Median household income | $101,883 | 6 of 14 |
Federal jobs in Massachusetts (896) →All cities of MassachusettsState guide: Massachusetts
These links go to official sources and open in a new window. The first one is the government's or company's own site as listed in Wikidata (property "official website"); check it before relying on it.
Cities of this guide whose main county is Essex County.
| City ⇅ | Population ⇅ | Median household income ⇅ | Median rent ⇅ | Median home value ⇅ | Bachelor's+ ⇅ |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Lynn | 101,709 | $75,043 | $1,722 | $510,100 | 24.1% |
| Lawrence | 88,736 | $60,433 | $1,662 | $415,200 | 16.8% |
| Haverhill | 67,698 | $88,326 | $1,668 | $453,900 | 32.6% |
| Peabody | 54,695 | $96,657 | $1,950 | $596,200 | 35.0% |
| Salem | 44,795 | $85,153 | $1,836 | $542,800 | 47.8% |
| Beverly | 42,665 | $106,044 | $1,771 | $650,300 | 53.4% |
| Gloucester | 30,075 | $83,883 | $1,411 | $600,600 | 40.3% |
| Saugus | 28,773 | $101,539 | $2,241 | $603,400 | 31.4% |
| Danvers | 28,098 | $125,395 | $2,076 | $644,200 | 48.4% |
| Marblehead | 20,413 | $182,132 | $1,764 | $943,900 | 78.3% |
| Newburyport | 18,652 | $139,625 | $1,592 | $834,000 | 67.0% |
| Swampscott | 15,277 | $134,386 | $2,303 | $771,100 | 62.2% |
| Lynnfield | 13,064 | $175,265 | $2,676 | $917,600 | 62.7% |
| Industry ⇅ | Jobs ⇅ | Share of private jobs ⇅ | Average annual pay ⇅ | Concentration vs US (location quotient) ⇅ |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Health care and social assistance | 64,038 | 22.7% | $61,998 | 1.38 |
| Manufacturing | 39,526 | 14.0% | $109,328 | 1.49 |
| Retail trade | 34,981 | 12.4% | $42,998 | 1.08 |
| Accommodation and food services | 28,875 | 10.2% | $32,136 | 0.98 |
| Professional and technical services | 17,386 | 6.2% | $135,143 | 0.77 |
| Construction | 17,091 | 6.1% | $93,526 | 1.01 |
| Administrative and waste services | 16,503 | 5.9% | $60,343 | 0.87 |
| Other services (except public administration) | 12,441 | 4.4% | $42,886 | 1.28 |
| Wholesale trade | 10,341 | 3.7% | $120,899 | 0.81 |
| Educational services | 8,210 | 2.9% | $58,211 | 1.23 |
| Finance and insurance | 7,325 | 2.6% | $136,648 | 0.56 |
| Arts, entertainment, recreation | 6,280 | 2.2% | $35,565 | 1.15 |
| Transportation and warehousing | 6,270 | 2.2% | $61,877 | 0.46 |
| Information | 3,916 | 1.4% | $131,496 | 0.65 |
| Management of companies | 3,718 | 1.3% | $175,558 | 0.68 |
| Real estate and rental | 3,344 | 1.2% | $89,853 | 0.67 |
| Utilities | 905 | 0.3% | $146,830 | 0.74 |
| Agriculture, forestry, fishing | 856 | 0.3% | $59,392 | 0.33 |
| Mining, oil and gas | 52 | 0.0% | $103,429 | 0.04 |
A location quotient above 1 means the industry is more concentrated here than in the US. BLS withholds sectors with too few employers.
| Measure ⇅ | Value ⇅ |
|---|---|
| Labour force | 439,969 |
| Employed residents | 420,849 |
| Unemployed residents | 19,120 |
| Unemployment rate | 4.3% |
| Jobs located in the county (QCEW) | 323,694 |
| Employer sites | 28,628 |
Residents employed and jobs located here differ: many residents commute to other counties.
| County ⇅ | Population ⇅ | GDP 2024 ⇅ | GDP per resident ⇅ | Jobs ⇅ | Average annual pay ⇅ | Unemployment ⇅ |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Middlesex County | 1,638,365 | $240,665 million | $146,894 | 926,104 | $113,704 | 3.8% |
| Worcester County | 867,788 | $60,947 million | $70,233 | 351,476 | $71,641 | 4.2% |
| Essex County | 813,054 | $60,733 million | $74,697 | 323,694 | $75,548 | 4.3% |
| Suffolk County | 785,121 | $190,778 million | $242,992 | 713,809 | $131,280 | 4.2% |
| Norfolk County | 730,082 | $75,071 million | $102,826 | 346,327 | $84,497 | 3.9% |
| Bristol County | 582,270 | $36,041 million | $61,897 | 227,971 | $64,669 | 4.5% |
| Plymouth County | 535,075 | $36,917 million | $68,993 | 194,985 | $69,858 | 4.2% |
| Hampden County | 462,815 | $30,598 million | $66,113 | 202,129 | $62,834 | 5.3% |
| Barnstable County | 231,668 | $19,298 million | $83,302 | 96,280 | $64,707 | 3.8% |
| Hampshire County | 162,028 | $10,389 million | $64,117 | 65,786 | $62,006 | 3.8% |
| Berkshire County | 129,430 | $9,165 million | $70,812 | 57,946 | $62,257 | 3.9% |
| Franklin County | 70,944 | $3,704 million | $52,208 | 25,435 | $54,261 | 3.8% |
| Dukes County | 20,933 | $2,110 million | $100,784 | 9,176 | $71,428 | 3.3% |
| Nantucket County | 14,483 | $2,107 million | $145,505 | 8,560 | $78,799 | 3.0% |
813,054 (Census Bureau ACS 2020–2024).
$60,733 million in 2024 (BEA, current dollars).
4.3% in 2026M09 (BLS, not seasonally adjusted; the latest month may be revised).
323,694 jobs on average in 2024 with an average annual pay of $75,548 (BLS QCEW).