U.S. employers added a disappointing 29,000 jobs in September, and the national unemployment rate also ticked up. Massachusetts' latest unemployment rate was 4.3%, the government reported Friday, a month before voters go to the polls in pivotal midterm elections at a time of discontent over the high cost of living and the state of the economy.
Massachusetts' August unemployment rate, the latest state-level figure available, compares with 4.5% a year earlier. About 166,328 people were unemployed, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics report. Nationally, the jobless rate ticked up to 4.2 percent. State-level unemployment rates for September will be released Oct. 20.
But having a job is only part of an economic picture dogging Massachusetts residents a month before they go to the polls in pivotal midterm elections at a time of discontent over the high cost of living and the state of the economy.
What jobs pay matters, too.
Ask what the average Bay Stater earns, and the answer should be simple. It isn't.
The federal government measures pay several ways — among them, average wages, median earnings, weekly pay and household income. They measure different groups of people, cover different periods and can produce numbers thousands of dollars apart.
For workers in Massachusetts, the average annual wage across all occupations was $85,610, according to the latest state-by-state estimates from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Those figures are for May 2025, but they are the newest comprehensive state occupational wage estimates available in 2026. BLS released them May 15.
Nationally, the average annual wage was $69,770, or $33.54 an hour.
This is where salary statistics get slippery.
The average, or mean, is calculated by adding everyone's wages and dividing by the number of workers. Very high salaries can pull that number upward.
The median is the midpoint: Half of workers make more and half make less. For someone trying to answer, "What does a typical worker make?" the median can often give a more useful picture.
And neither should be confused with household income, which can include earnings from two or more people as well as other forms of income.
That's how the "average American salary" can change by thousands of dollars depending on which federal statistic you're looking at.
According to the latest BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, the average wage across all occupations in Massachusetts was $41.16 an hour, or $85,610 a year. The median hourly wage was $30.57.
That puts Massachusetts above the national average annual wage of $69,770.
The BLS releases data for both full- and part-time wage and salary workers in nonfarm jobs. This does not include self-employed workers, owners and partners of unincorporated businesses, private household employees or unpaid family workers.
The estimates are based on survey data collected over multiple periods rather than paychecks from a single week.
A more current BLS measure puts median earnings for full-time wage and salary workers at $1,251 a week, or about $65,052 a year, in the second quarter of 2026.
That's lower than the $69,770 national average cited above, but the two figures measure different things. The $65,052 figure is based on the median, or midpoint, for full-time workers. The $69,770 figure is an average that includes both full- and part-time workers and can be pulled higher by top earners.
For a worker trying to gauge a typical paycheck, the median may be the more useful number.
Even the Massachusetts average hides enormous differences.
BLS publishes pay estimates for roughly 830 occupations, along with estimates for individual states and hundreds of metropolitan and nonmetropolitan areas.
In Massachusetts, for example:
Here's another number that frequently shows up in discussions of what Americans earn: $87,460. That figure can include earnings from more than one person, so it shouldn't be confused with an individual's salary.
That's the nation's median household income in 2025, according to the Census Bureau's newest report, released Sept. 15, 2026.
The latest comparable state figures are from 2024. In Massachusetts, median household income was $104,828, according to the Census Bureau's American Community Survey.
Household income can combine the income of spouses, partners or other household members, along with income sources besides wages. A two-earner household making $87,460 therefore does not mean either worker makes $87,460.
There isn't one magic number.
"Average pay" can mean an average wage, a median paycheck, or household income, and each measures something different.
That's why several different figures can all be accurate at the same time.
The Associated Press contributed reporting on the jobs report.
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