According to a professor at UMass/Boston, the Massachusetts economy has slowed to a standstill due to factors other than a normal business cycle downside.
MassBenchmarks co-editor Alan Clayton-Matthews attributes the slowdown to “pressures of a high cost of living, outsourcing, offshoring and competition from Asia for the state’s information technology products”.
With expected growth of a mere 3/10 of 1% over the next six months, the Massachusetts economy is suffering from a rise in energy costs, the expectation of rising interest rates, near-stagnant (4/10 of 1%) growth in payroll employment over the past year, a decline in real inflation-adjusted aggregate wages and out-migration.