BOSTON – Massachusetts’ gross domestic product expanded at an annualized rate of 6.2% in the second quarter, slower than the national rate of 6.5%, MassBenchmarks said on Thursday.
The state’s GDP was estimated to have grown at an annualized rate of 6.9% in the first quarter of the year.
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The state’s payroll employment increased at a 4.3% annualized rate in the quarter, slower than the national annualized rate of 4.7% and slower than the state’s 6.9% annualized growth rate in the first quarter. MassBenchmarks noted that the state has yet to return to pre-pandemic levels of employment, with state payrolls in June remaining 7.4% below a peak in February 2020.
Wages and salaries in Massachusetts increased at a 2.8% annual rate in the second quarter, level with growth measured in the first quarter of the year.
The growth in GDP both in the state and nationally was attributed to strong consumer spending driven by the American Rescue Plan. In Massachusetts, consumer spending was estimated to have increased by 23.1% over the first quarter.
MassBenchmarks projected that the economic growth in the state would continue to be strong through the remainder of 2021, projecting an annualized growth rate of 4.7% in the third quarter and 8.1% in the fourth quarter. However, it was noted that such projections do not account for the potential impact of the spread of the delta variant of the COVID-19 virus.
MassBenchmarks is published by the University of Massachusetts Donahue Institute in cooperation with the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston.
The full report may be found online.
