Metro Job Market Pulse · General Market Conditions · September 2026
General Market Conditions Labor Market Report: Billings, MT MSA — September 2026
Billings labor market tightens while growth narrows to healthcare
Billings MSA unemployment sits at 2.9% against a 4.1% national rate, but Yellowstone County's 0.8% job growth and Montana's healthcare-led hiring suggest a tight labor market built on a narrow base rather than broad-based economic acceleration.
Free archive edition. Published by WageScape as sent to subscribers; data as of September 2026.
Key indicators
- Billings MSA unemployment rate: 2.9% — vs 4.1% national, 3.2% Montana (Aug 2026)
- Yellowstone County job growth: +0.8% — vs +1.8% Flathead, +1.5% Gallatin County (2025)
- Yellowstone County avg weekly wage growth: +4.2% — to $1,285/week, vs $1,654 national average
- Montana real (inflation-adjusted) weekly wage: -2.6% — May 2026 vs year earlier, despite nominal gains
Key takeaways
Billings labor market is tight, not booming.
A 2.9% metro unemployment rate alongside a flat-to-declining Yellowstone County employment trend (-0.1% year-over-year through September 2025) suggests low joblessness reflects limited labor supply growth, not surging demand. Commerce leaders should read low unemployment here as a capacity constraint signal, not an expansion green light.
Healthcare is doing most of the region's heavy lifting.
Montana added over 1,200 healthcare jobs statewide in 2025, with hospital employment up more than 900 — the largest gain since 2016 — while mining fell nearly 13% following the Sibanye-Stillwater closure. Yellowstone County's modest 0.8% job growth likely tracks this same healthcare concentration, making the sector a disproportionate share of the metro's economic resilience.
Local wage gains may be outrunning what paychecks actually buy.
Yellowstone County's 4.2% weekly wage growth looks strong against the national 3.5% figure, but statewide inflation-adjusted weekly wages actually fell 2.6% as of May 2026. Nominal wage headlines in local reporting may overstate real purchasing power gains for area consumers and business customers.
Four counties carry Montana's urban growth story — Yellowstone is one.
Only Flathead, Gallatin, Yellowstone, and Silver Bow posted 2025 job growth among Montana's urban counties, with Yellowstone's 0.8% trailing Flathead's 1.8% and Gallatin's 1.5%. Commerce leaders benchmarking Billings against peer Montana metros should note it is growing, but at the slower end of the state's limited growth cohort.
Median advertised pay by role — Billings, MT MSA
| Role | 25th percentile | Median advertised pay | 75th percentile | Metro trend | National median |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Retail Sales Associate | $27,930 | $33,178 | $35,360 | Moderate increase | $33,325 |
| Retail Cashier | $25,424 | $29,174 | $31,987 | Moderate decline | $31,200 |
| Warehouse/Fulfillment Associate | $33,823 | $37,440 | $40,431 | Stable | $38,000 |
| CDL Truck Driver | $57,000 | $83,304 | $92,989 | Moderate increase | $78,000 |
| Delivery Driver | $32,300 | $36,400 | $41,775 | Significant decline | $34,344 |
| Construction Laborer | $34,320 | $40,560 | $43,680 | Moderate decline | $40,560 |
| Electrician | $67,600 | $74,880 | $94,640 | Moderate decline | $71,404 |
| Manufacturing Production Worker/Assembler | $35,366 | $39,520 | $41,600 | Significant decline | $39,520 |
| Customer Service Representative | $34,320 | $38,480 | $40,189 | Stable | $39,520 |
| Food Service Worker | $29,821 | $34,320 | $36,400 | Stable | $33,756 |
| Certified Nursing Assistant / Home Health Aide | $39,780 | $45,386 | $51,376 | Stable | $41,106 |
| Administrative Assistant/Office Clerk | $35,458 | $42,877 | $45,000 | Moderate decline | $43,680 |
| HVAC Technician | $67,910 | $72,546 | $78,421 | Stable | $70,720 |
| Registered Nurse | $90,612 | $110,147 | $116,934 | Significant increase | $102,581 |
| Software Engineer | $84,872 | $141,347 | $164,665 | Stable | $153,652 |
| Data Engineer | $84,833 | $99,918 | $158,270 | Significant increase | $139,500 |
| Accountant | $51,120 | $59,752 | $66,383 | Moderate decline | $72,182 |
| Financial Analyst | $74,914 | $80,680 | $82,988 | Stable | $94,782 |
| HR Generalist/Manager | $48,000 | $65,172 | $78,000 | Significant increase | $75,000 |
| Marketing Specialist * | $43,369 | $57,996 | $70,334 | Stable | $62,354 |
| Operations Manager * | $73,679 | $96,224 | $101,982 | Significant increase | $85,216 |
| Elementary/Secondary School Teacher | $31,980 | $42,871 | $56,437 | Significant decline | $56,731 |
| Account Manager | $63,671 | $93,495 | $115,573 | Significant increase | $92,749 |
| Warehouse Manager * | $45,691 | $48,405 | $49,568 | Significant decline | $75,000 |
| Business Analyst | $70,545 | $88,791 | $95,277 | 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 | $60,935 | Significant increase | Significant increase |
| Manufacturing | $70,195 | Significant increase | Significant increase |
| Retail Trade | $37,674 | Stable | Significant increase |
| Transportation, Warehousing & Utilities | $64,074 | Significant increase | Significant increase |
| Information | $63,627 | Moderate increase | Significant increase |
| Financial Activities | $55,493 | Stable | Significant increase |
| Professional & Business Services | $86,670 | Significant increase | Significant increase |
| Education & Health Services | $60,409 | Significant increase | Significant increase |
| Leisure & Hospitality | $32,484 | Moderate decline | Significant increase |
| Government | $67,638 | Significant increase | Significant increase |
Local market conditions
Billings MSA unemployment held at 2.9% in August against a national rate of 4.1%, with job growth concentrated almost entirely in healthcare while mining, manufacturing, and government payrolls stayed flat or contracted statewide. Yellowstone County's 4.2% year-over-year wage growth to $1,285 weekly outpaced the Montana average, but national CPI running near 3.4% against 3.0% national wage growth signals the local wage cushion is thinner than headline numbers suggest.
What it means
Tight local unemployment alongside flat statewide employment (-1,400 jobs year-over-year) points to a labor market that is full but not expanding — a signal for commerce leaders weighing local expansion or investment timing rather than a hiring-urgency story. Public-sector stability in Yellowstone County, one of only four Montana urban counties with 2025 job growth (+0.8%), offers a steadier anchor for local economic planning than state or national government trends, which are shedding payroll. Consider evaluating expansion or investment timelines against sector-specific momentum — healthcare and construction locally, rather than the broader flat employment picture — to avoid reading a single aggregate number as the whole story.
Looking ahead
Worth watching: Montana's 58,000-person labor force exclusion pool (childcare constraints plus underemployment) represents 6% of the state's labor force. Watch whether any state or local childcare policy movement shows up in Yellowstone County labor force participation data over the next two quarters.
Emerging pressure point: National WARN filings remain elevated (3,562 notices affecting over 313,000 workers as of late September), though Montana itself shows minimal exposure with only 4 notices affecting 173 workers statewide. A material local filing would be a meaningful break from the current pattern and worth flagging quickly.
Potential inflection point: National payroll growth has slowed sharply — 29,000 added in September versus a 45,000 average, with downward revisions to July and August. Billings' healthcare-led growth has so far decoupled from this national softening, but a continued national slowdown bears watching for spillover into consumer-facing metro sectors.
Early indicator: Real average hourly earnings nationally turned negative year-over-year for the first time since 2021. Local commerce leaders should track whether Yellowstone County's reported wage gains hold up against Montana's own inflation-adjusted wage figures when Q2 2026 county data is released.
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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