Employment

The Boston area offers a wide scope of employment opportunities. Leading fields of employment are health care; financial services, insurance and real estate; and higher education.

The health care industry and hospitals, in particular, employs far more people than any other sector in Boston. With nearly 15,000 employees, Massachusetts General Hospital is the city's largest employer. Other major health care employers include Beth Deaconess Medical Center, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Children's Hospital, and New England Medical Center.

Fidelity Investments, with more than 11,000 employees, is Boston's second largest private employer. John Hancock, State Street Corp., and Massachusetts Financial Services round out Boston's four largest financial services companies.

Leading higher education employers include Boston University, Harvard's schools of Business and Medicine, Boston College, and Northeastern University. The city's leading research universities also contribute thousands of skilled workers and numerous new technologies to the economy every year.

Other leading areas of the economy are professional and business services, the airline sector, retail, hotel and manufacturing.