Top 25 Employer List for 2021


1/14/2022 • 2 years ago

caution sign The information on this page may be outdated as it was published 2 years ago.

Cambridge Research Park at Lunch

Click here to view the Top 25 list for 2021.

Since the mid-1980s the Community Development Department (CDD) has collected employment data from Cambridge employers to assemble a list of the 25 largest providers of jobs. The information is updated annually and published on the web site with links to the career web pages of the listed organizations.

The Top 25 list merits a closer look, as it provides insight into the overall economic climate in Cambridge. While measuring the city’s most significant employers, it is worth noting that the term “employee” can mean different things to different employers. To ensure a reliable basis for comparison across organizations, the Top 25 counts Full Time Equivalents (FTEs). A person working full time between 35 and 40 hours per week counts as one FTE (or one employee). Therefore, a person employed half time is 0.5 FTEs and a person working one full day a week is 0.2 FTEs (based on a 5 day work week).

A wide range of employers reported more than 57,000 workers, representing over 42% of the Cambridge workforce reported by the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. The three largest employers in the city are Harvard University, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and the City of Cambridge. Eight of the top employers are pharmaceutical companies or research institutes directly engaged in biotechnology, drug development, or genetics research. These employers reported over 14,400 workers.

Several employers annually appear on the Top 25 list. Harvard University and MIT have shared the first two positions on every list since 1986; in all but two years, Harvard has been the City’s largest employer. The City of Cambridge often ranked third in the past. Mt. Auburn Hospital and Draper Laboratories have also been members every year since 1986.

Looking beyond the “regulars,” the Top 25 reveals more. Over the years 67 different employers have appeared on the listing, after taking into account name changes and corporate mergers. Today, seven of the sixteen private companies listed are in the biotechnology and pharmaceutical industry. Among them are Cambridge stalwarts such as Biogen, Novartis, Sanofi, Takeda Pharmaceuticals, and Pfizer as well as younger firms Moderna and Alnylam.  Including employers who otherwise support the biotechnology cluster—researchers at MIT, the Broad Institute and start-up support at the Cambridge Innovation Center (CIC) and Lab Central —eleven of the Top 25 employers are involved in the biotech cluster.

While Cambridge is known as a hotbed of internet and software innovation, much of that work occurs at smaller firms. Still, five of the Top 25 fall in this sector: Akamai Technologies, Hubspot, Google, Pegasystems, and CarGurus. The CIC also lends support to many internet startups. Finally, the Top 25 includes a diverse set of eight employers ranging from electronics and heath care technology (Philips North America) to defense and internet technology (Raytheon BBN Technologies) to health care delivery (Cambridge Health Alliance, Mt. Auburn Hospital) to consultants (Forrester Research) to research Institutes (Draper Laboratories) and encompassing the educational services firm EF Education First and the Federal Government. The Top 25 list demonstrates the range, strength and capacity for economic growth in Cambridge, explaining the high level of confidence in its future.

For More Information

For more information please contact Cliff Cook. Senior Planning Information Manager,  at 617/349-4656 or ccook@cambridgema.gov.