Metro Job Market Pulse · General Market Conditions · September 2026
General Market Conditions Labor Market Report: Albany-Schenectady-Troy, NY MSA — September 2026
Albany jobs shrink as rents tighten and pay bifurcates.
Albany-Schenectady-Troy averaged a 250-job monthly decline through 2026 even as apartment vacancy hit 3.6% — the tightest of any tracked U.S. metro — while nursing pay rose to $110,381 and retail pay slipped.
Free archive edition. Published by WageScape as sent to subscribers; data as of September 2026.
Key indicators
- Metro monthly job change, 2026: -250/month avg — vs +267/month average gain in 2025
- Albany apartment vacancy rate: 3.6% — Lowest among tracked U.S. metros, down from 5.2%
- County unemployment range: 3.9%-4.2% — Albany 3.9%, Schenectady 4.2%, vs US 4.2%
- National wage vs. inflation gap: 3.0% vs 3.4% — First real-wage decline after 2 years of gains
Key takeaways
Albany's job count is shrinking while pay for key roles keeps climbing.
Registered Nurse pay rose significantly to $110,381 and electrician pay climbed to $68,506, even as the metro averaged a 250-job monthly net loss in 2026. Wage gains concentrated in healthcare and skilled trades appear to reflect demand outpacing a shrinking available workforce in those fields, not metro-wide economic strength.
Tight apartment vacancy tells a different story than the jobs data.
Vacancy at 3.6% — down from 5.2% three years ago and the lowest among tracked metros — suggests households are choosing to stay or relocate into the region even as net job creation stalls. That divergence is consistent with a metro absorbing population or retirees independent of local hiring momentum, a distinction worth flagging for anyone reading jobs numbers as the whole economic picture.
Government's local stability is doing more work than it gets credit for.
With 86% of downtown Albany jobs tied to government and office work, the metro is comparatively insulated from the 216,000 national decline in government payrolls over the past year. That insulation is a stabilizer, not a growth engine — commerce leaders should treat it as a floor under the local economy rather than a source of expansion.
Wage-vs-inflation gap is now a national headwind, not just a local one.
National wage growth slowed to 3.0% year-over-year in September against 3.4% inflation, meaning real purchasing power is contracting for the first time in two years. Albany's own wage picture is mixed — strong gains in nursing and skilled trades, declines in retail and customer service pay — suggesting uneven consumer spending power across different parts of the local workforce.
Median advertised pay by role — Albany-Schenectady-Troy, NY MSA
| Role | 25th percentile | Median advertised pay | 75th percentile | Metro trend | National median |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Retail Sales Associate | $32,181 | $33,384 | $36,400 | Moderate decline | $33,325 |
| Retail Cashier | $31,816 | $36,079 | $38,480 | Stable | $31,200 |
| Warehouse/Fulfillment Associate | $34,667 | $40,560 | $43,220 | Stable | $38,000 |
| CDL Truck Driver | $54,988 | $74,644 | $88,000 | Stable | $78,000 |
| Delivery Driver | $31,199 | $36,655 | $42,380 | Stable | $34,344 |
| Construction Laborer | $37,356 | $42,640 | $46,800 | Stable | $40,560 |
| Electrician | $56,202 | $68,506 | $73,624 | Significant increase | $71,404 |
| Manufacturing Production Worker/Assembler | $33,855 | $39,260 | $41,502 | Stable | $39,520 |
| Customer Service Representative | $35,464 | $39,850 | $44,088 | Moderate decline | $39,520 |
| Food Service Worker | $33,280 | $36,400 | $38,760 | Moderate decline | $33,756 |
| Certified Nursing Assistant / Home Health Aide | $36,000 | $41,860 | $45,240 | Stable | $41,106 |
| Administrative Assistant/Office Clerk | $37,440 | $45,450 | $49,920 | Stable | $43,680 |
| HVAC Technician | $62,400 | $71,947 | $80,080 | Moderate increase | $70,720 |
| Registered Nurse | $88,428 | $110,381 | $121,331 | Significant increase | $102,581 |
| Software Engineer | $119,800 | $154,110 | $171,150 | Stable | $153,652 |
| Data Engineer | $99,212 | $142,815 | $159,248 | Moderate increase | $139,500 |
| Accountant | $59,565 | $70,800 | $78,491 | Significant increase | $72,182 |
| Financial Analyst | $71,895 | $92,500 | $101,916 | Moderate increase | $94,782 |
| HR Generalist/Manager | $57,264 | $80,000 | $86,252 | Significant increase | $75,000 |
| Marketing Specialist | $44,723 | $58,987 | $70,619 | Stable | $62,354 |
| Operations Manager * | $70,000 | $85,960 | $100,600 | Moderate decline | $85,216 |
| Elementary/Secondary School Teacher | $42,640 | $60,131 | $64,086 | Moderate increase | $56,731 |
| Account Manager | $62,831 | $95,329 | $117,495 | Significant increase | $92,749 |
| Warehouse Manager * | $47,232 | $62,774 | $75,021 | Significant increase | $75,000 |
| Business Analyst | $81,293 | $93,642 | $106,013 | Moderate increase | $98,279 |
* State-level figure shown where metro postings were too few.
WageScape's median is calibrated to correct for spurious low-value postings (reported as the 60th percentile of raw advertised pay). Download: CSV · JSON
Industry snapshot
| Sector | Median advertised pay | Pay trend | Postings trend |
|---|---|---|---|
| Construction | $77,500 | Moderate increase | Significant increase |
| Manufacturing | $109,780 | Significant increase | Significant increase |
| Retail Trade | $41,377 | Stable | Significant increase |
| Transportation, Warehousing & Utilities | $59,148 | Moderate increase | Moderate increase |
| Information | $129,961 | Significant increase | Moderate decline |
| Financial Activities | $107,544 | Significant increase | Significant increase |
| Professional & Business Services | $91,631 | Significant increase | Significant increase |
| Education & Health Services | $65,000 | Moderate increase | Moderate increase |
| Leisure & Hospitality | $38,317 | Stable | Significant increase |
| Government | $70,308 | Significant increase | Significant decline |
Local market conditions
Albany-Schenectady-Troy employment growth has effectively stalled, averaging a 250-job monthly decline through 2026 after a modest 0.8% annual gain in 2025, with government and office-dependent work still anchoring roughly 86% of downtown Albany's job base. Regional softness tracks a statewide pattern of concentrated gains in finance and healthcare masking broader stagnation, while the metro's 3.6% apartment vacancy rate — the tightest among tracked U.S. metros — signals housing demand holding firm even as payroll growth cools.
What it means
Flat-to-declining headcount growth alongside a historically tight rental market points to a local economy where labor supply isn't the constraint — demand for office-anchored and government-adjacent activity is. For commerce leaders, this combination suggests the metro's near-term growth story runs through sectors showing wage momentum (healthcare, skilled trades) rather than broad-based expansion, while government economists should note that public-sector stability locally contrasts with the 17,000 national government job losses in September. Current conditions suggest monitoring whether healthcare and construction wage gains translate into actual job-count growth, or remain confined to pay inflation within a shrinking employment base.
Looking ahead
Expected: September 2026 metro-level employment and unemployment figures from the New York State Department of Labor should publish in October, offering the first read on whether the 2026 job-loss trend accelerated or stabilized.
Worth watching: Statewide labor force participation has slipped to 61.3%, and whether Albany follows that pattern will determine if local unemployment holding near 3.9-4.2% reflects fewer job-seekers rather than stronger hiring, mirroring the pattern already seen in NYC.
Emerging pressure point: New York recorded 46 WARN notices affecting 4,694 workers over the past 90 days, concentrated in healthcare, manufacturing, and transportation/logistics — none large-scale locally so far, but commerce leaders should track whether any filings emerge in the Capital Region given construction-sector cost pressure noted in the Federal Reserve's September Beige Book.
Potential inflection point: National payroll growth decelerated sharply to 29,000 in September with downward revisions to July and August, and if that national cooling persists into Q4, it may pressure the Capital Region's already-flat job count further given its reliance on broader public and office-sector activity.
Methodology
Advertised pay from active employer job postings, not survey data. WageScape's median is calibrated to correct for spurious low-value postings: distribution analysis shows roughly the lowest 10% of raw values are erroneous entries, so the reported median is the 60th percentile of raw advertised pay. WageScape observes 98% of U.S. job openings daily.
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