Particularly dire: Working-age adults are leaving in droves. On net, Massachusetts lost an average of 22,631 people age 25 to 44 across 2021 and 2022 — the largest number of any age group and a marked increase over previous years, according to the report. For perspective, that’s about the size of the population of Winchester.

That age group “would normally start making up more of the labor market as they grow older,” said Peter Ciurczak, the author of the Boston Indicators report. “But if we lose them, they’re not going to be able to.”

For a state with a rapidly aging population and a relatively low birth rate, this spells trouble, said Mark Melnik, the director of economic and public policy research at the University of Massachusetts Amherst Donahue Institute, which studies population trends.

“It’s not just that we’re losing people,” he said. “We’re losing people while our resident workforce is aging out of the primary working ages.”

To be sure, this problem is nothing new. “We’ve always been net losers on domestic outmigration,” Melnik said, adding that young people are a historically transient group.

And there are signs of stabilization: Though Massachusetts saw dramatic levels of net outmigration in 2021 and 2022, the state got back in the black in 2023. Massachusetts experienced a positive net migration of nearly 11,500 residents from July 1, 2022 to July 1, 2023, as international immigration numbers rebounded from pandemic-era lows.

In fact, Massachusetts received more immigrants between 2020 and 2023 than any other state as a percentage of overall population, according to a report released Thursday by the Pioneer Institute think tank. In 2023 about 51,000 net immigrants moved to Massachusetts, compared to the approximately 39,000 net domestic residents that departed the state “for greener pastures,” Pioneer said.

Even though domestic departures are nothing new, solving them is becoming more and more urgent for the labor market, as the state’s ”silver tsunami,” looms: By 2030, about 21 percent of Massachusetts residents will be 65 or older, up from just under 14 percent in 2010, according to projections by the Donahue Institute.

“While COVID stopped the world for two years, and we kind of just froze everything, the one thing that kept happening was we kept getting older,” Melnik said.

The question then becomes: Why are so many working-age people leaving, and how do we stanch the losses?

“It’s always hard to pin any one reason down,” Ciurczak said, “but certainly, housing seems to be a big one.”

Housing costs in Massachusetts, particularly in the Boston region, are among the highest in the country. This is a top-of-mind concern for young people; a recent survey by the Greater Boston Chamber of Commerce Foundation found that among 20- to 30-year-olds in Greater Boston, the cost of rent and the ability to buy a home ranked among the most important factors in determining whether to stay or go.

And as the pandemic ushered in a work-from-anywhere world — particularly for college-educated knowledge workers — those with the means to move decided they would get more bang for their buck elsewhere.

“Or even just any bang, honestly,” Ciurczak said.

While the problems are well documented, what’s hazier are possible solutions. More housing production is a crucial piece of the puzzle, Melnik said, but Massachusetts needs an “all-in approach” to workforce development, such as targeted investments in the state’s Gateway Cities as well as groups that have lower labor force participation rates, such as people with disabilities, veterans, and people with criminal records.

“Realistically, there’s not going to be a new baby boom that’s going to solve this,” he said. “So in order to find the workers in the corners that you need to find them, it’s attraction and retention, it’s optimization of workers, and it’s creative solutions to make working easier.”

Dana Gerber can be reached at dana.gerber@globe.com. Follow her @danagerber6. Kirkland An can be reached at kirkland.an@globe.com. Follow him on Twitter @kirkland_an

A longtime agent for the U.S. Internal Revenue Service has been indicted for filing false tax returns for several years, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Massachusetts said Wednesday.

Ndeye Amy Thioub, 67, of Swampscott, was indicted on three counts of filing false tax returns and three counts of filing false tax returns as an employee of the United States by a federal grand jury in Boston on Tuesday, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office. Thioub was arrested on March 20 and charged with a criminal complaint, which accused her of lying on her tax returns for 2017, 2018, and 2019.

Thioub had served as an Internal Revenue agent since 2006 and worked out of the Boston IRS office, according to the criminal complaint. She was assigned to the IRS’ Large Business and International Division, where she conducted independent field examinations and investigations of “complex income tax returns” filed by large entities, the complaint adds.

“Thioub has extensive and specialized knowledge and training in accounting techniques, practices, and investigative audit techniques,” the U.S. Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration said in a statement earlier this month. “She is also responsible for examining and resolving various tax issues of individuals and business organizations that may include extensive national and/or international subsidiaries.”

In addition to her IRS position, Thioub worked as a visiting instructor at Salem State University in Massachusetts between roughly 2017 and 2021, the complaint says. She taught college-level classes that included instruction on verification of records; valuation and analysis of accounts; the importance of financial accounting and financial statements; professional standards; and ethics, professional responsibilities, and legal liabilities issues facing auditors.

Thioub faces up to three years in prison, followed by one year of supervised release, and a $100,000 fine for filing a false tax return, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office. She also faces up to five years in prison, followed by one year of supervised release, and a $10,000 fine for filing a false tax return as a federal employee.

According to the U.S. Sentencing Commission, more than 61,000 cases were reported to the commission in the fiscal year 2022. Of those cases, 401 involved tax fraud and the median loss for these offenses was over $300,000.

Complaint: Veteran IRS agent claimed thousands of dollars in false expenses

During the tax years of 2017 to 2019, Thioub filed false personal tax returns and claimed thousands of dollars in fraudulent business expenses, according to the U.S. Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration.

The complaint alleges that Thioub also filed a false Schedule C, which is used to report income and expenses a taxpayer operated or a profession the taxpayer practiced as a sole proprietor. Thioub allegedly claimed a business loss from an “import/export” business Thioub said she operated, the complaint says.

“As a result, the claimed net loss was carried over to her personal IRS Form 1040s and used to reduce Thioub’s adjusted gross income and ultimate tax liability,” the U.S. Attorney’s Office said.

Thioub had reported that the alleged businesses resulted in net losses of $42,805 in 2017, $20,324 in 2018, and $27,063 in 2019, according to the complaint.

More: The IRS is sending 125,000 compliance letters in campaign against wealthy tax cheats

Latest criminal case involving IRS employee

Wednesday’s announcement is the latest case involving an IRS employee in recent years.

In May 2023, six people — including a former IRS employee — were charged in connection to an alleged multimillion-dollar COVID-fraud scheme, according to the IRS. Frank Mosley was identified as the former IRS agent and was a tax enforcement officer for Oakland, California, at the time.

According to the charging documents, Mosley and the five other suspects conspired to submit fraudulent loan applications through the federal government’s Payroll Protection Program. Mosley was also accused of using the funds from the loans for personal investments and expenses.

Another former IRS employee was sentenced to 13 months in prison, followed by three years of supervised release, and ordered to pay $74,662 restitution in 2022, the IRS said. The former employee had filed false tax returned and gave fabricated records “in an attempt to obstruct an audit of those returns.”

In October 2020, an IRS supervisory revenue agent was arrested and charged with one count of conspiracy to distribute five kilograms or more of cocaine, according to the U.S. Department of Justice. An investigation at the time revealed that the agent would resell cocaine that he received from a courier.

Firefighters across Massachusetts are facing the “nearly impossible” task of extinguishing lithium-ion battery fires much more often, according to new state data showing that such blazes have spiked sharply in the past half-year.

The state Department of Fire Service created a checklist last October for local departments to use to track the number of fires caused by lithium-ion batteries, which power large devices like electric vehicles and smaller items like smartphones and e-cigarettes.

So far, the form has helped 38 cities and towns identify 50 lithium-ion battery fires in the past six months, more than double the annual average detected by a national fire data reporting system, State Fire Marshal Jon M. Davine said in a release Wednesday.

The Massachusetts Fire Incident Reporting System, a state-level tool that mirrors and feeds into a national reporting system, recorded an average of 19.4 lithium-ion battery fires per year from 2019 to 2023.

“The increase since last fall could be due to the growing number of consumer devices powered by these batteries, increased attention by local fire investigators, or other factors,” Davine said.

The State Police Fire & Explosion Investigation Unit immediately started using the form which is optional for local fire departments to gather information when responding to fires involving lithium-ion batteries – make and model of the device, purchase history, and whether it was charging at the time of the blaze.

Brockton Deputy Chief Kevin Galligan told the Herald that he believes the number of lithium-ion battery fires since October is more than double the figure the DFS has reported. Firefighters are still being educated about the form and about the kind of fire, he said.

In the past, firefighters blamed the device for the fire and not the battery, Galligan said.

“I’m personally to a point where almost every fire I go to now I’m assuming I’ll be dealing with lithium-ion batteries,” he said, “whether they’re the cause of the fire or they were involved in the fire. It’s almost as if we can’t get away from them at this point.”

Nine of the 50 fires that DFS reported involved battery-powered scooters, e-bikes, and hoverboards. Eight involved laptops and another eight involved cell phones, tablets, or similar devices. Power tools were involved in six fires.

“The device’s charging status could be determined in 41 of the 50 fires: surprisingly, 56% of these devices were not charging at the time of the incident,” according to officials.

Lithium-ion battery fires are “much more intense” than a fire caused by careless disposal of a cigarette or cooking, Galligan said. Smaller devices that use lithium-ion batteries like a drill or a laptop are relatively easy to extinguish, but it’s a different story for larger items like vehicles, he said.

“They’re nearly impossible to extinguish and you use thousands of gallons of water trying to cool the batteries to prevent it spreading from battery to battery,” Galligan said. “Once a battery is in thermal runaway, there’s nearly nothing you could do to stop that single cell. … The only thing we could do is try to cool the batteries around it to stop the spread.”

Even after the fire is extinguished, there is still more work for firefighters as they have to make sure all batteries are removed from the scene so they don’t cause a rekindle, Galligan said.

New York City has made national headlines, with the number of incidents there, soaring well over 200, injuring more than 100 people and killing 14. After a series of fires involving faulty e-bike batteries including a blaze that claimed four lives last June, officials announced they were receiving a $25 million emergency grant from the federal government to fund scores of charging stations citywide.

“It’s a significant challenge for the fire service,” Galligan said. “We are constantly coming up against whatever the next problem is, and it does require a lot of training and additional equipment to address this. But it’s something that we have to face because the lithium-ion batteries are not going away.”