The state is losing more workers than it’s attracting, with more than 27,000 people leaving in 2024 alone, the Massachusetts Taxpayers Foundation’s latest Competitiveness Index shows. And the state ranks last in the nation in private employer growth. Businesses cite high costs of living, employer-paid healthcare costs and energy prices that run well above the national average.
This fall, Gov. Maura Healey established an advisory council on competitiveness, a panel tasked with figuring out how to make the state a more appealing place to live and do business. Doug Howgate, head of the Massachusetts Taxpayers Foundation, joined GBH’s All Things Considered host Arun Rath to talk about what the council must tackle, what it shouldn’t overpromise and what it will truly take to move the needle on competitiveness in the commonwealth. What follows is a lightly edited transcript of their conversation.
Arun Rath: When you look at the Massachusetts Taxpayers Foundation’s latest data, what do you see as the clearest signs that Massachusetts is becoming less competitive? And what’s fueling this decline?…