Labor Force and Earnings

Barnstable County’s workforce is shaped by the region’s seasonality, tourism-driven economy, and second-homeowner and retiree communities, and it has a lower labor force participation rate than both Massachusetts and the United States. While earnings vary by occupation, Barnstable County’s median annual earnings across all occupations in 2020 was $42,887, lower than the state’s but higher than the country’s. Across all three geographies, women had lower median annual earnings than their male counterparts, with the gender gap in Barnstable County amounting to approximately $14,215, a greater gap than in 2019.