Metro Job Market Pulse · General Market Conditions · September 2026
General Market Conditions Labor Market Report: Brunswick, GA MSA — September 2026
Brunswick's labor market runs hotter than the nation's.
Glynn County unemployment sits near 2.70% against a national 4.1%-4.2% rate, with local service-sector wages climbing nearly 20% even as national wage growth slips below inflation for the first time since 2021.
Free archive edition. Published by WageScape as sent to subscribers; data as of September 2026.
Key indicators
- Glynn County unemployment: 2.70% — vs 4.1%-4.2% national, 3.2% Georgia
- Metro employment growth: +3.8% YoY — 48,097 jobs, Q1 2026, Georgia DOL
- National wage growth: 3.0% — Below 3.4% inflation, weakest since May 2021
- Financial Activities wage growth, Brunswick: +19.7% — Weekly wages, Q1 2026 vs year-ago
Key takeaways
Brunswick's unemployment edge over the nation is widening, not narrowing.
Glynn County's 2.70% rate compares with 4.1%-4.2% nationally and 3.2% statewide, a gap that has held or grown through mid-2026. That spread points to a local economy running measurably hotter than national momentum would suggest, relevant to any regional competitiveness pitch commerce leaders make to prospective employers or investors.
Service-sector wage surges may outpace what national data implies is possible.
Financial Activities and Other Services posted weekly wage gains of 19.7% and 17.1% locally even as national wage growth slowed to its weakest pace since 2021. Base effects from a smaller metro payroll make these percentages volatile, but the direction is consistent with a tightening local services labor pool worth tracking against incoming business formation data.
Manufacturing wage softness bucks the metro's otherwise upbeat story.
Manufacturing Production Worker pay fell significantly even as the broader metro posted 3.8% employment growth, echoing Georgia's statewide pattern of non-durable goods manufacturing softness. Commerce leaders tracking industrial recruitment should treat this as a sector-specific signal, not evidence of a broader local slowdown.
Public-sector stability remains a quiet strength for the metro.
Government accounts for 9,094 of the metro's roughly 48,000 jobs, a share that has shown no comparable contraction to the national 216,000-job government decline over the past year. That stability offers a counterweight to national headlines about federal and state payroll reductions and merits mention when assessing the metro's resilience to national fiscal headwinds.
Median advertised pay by role — Brunswick, GA MSA
| Role | 25th percentile | Median advertised pay | 75th percentile | Metro trend | National median |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Retail Sales Associate | $24,519 | $30,448 | $35,374 | Moderate increase | $33,325 |
| Retail Cashier | $23,663 | $26,218 | $29,589 | Moderate decline | $31,200 |
| Warehouse/Fulfillment Associate | $33,280 | $39,520 | $39,520 | Moderate increase | $38,000 |
| CDL Truck Driver | $63,385 | $83,000 | $94,200 | Moderate increase | $78,000 |
| Delivery Driver | $26,845 | $33,280 | $40,678 | Moderate decline | $34,344 |
| Construction Laborer | $30,209 | $39,004 | $41,350 | Significant increase | $40,560 |
| Electrician | $43,680 | $58,240 | $68,992 | Moderate decline | $71,404 |
| Manufacturing Production Worker/Assembler | $36,400 | $42,640 | $47,840 | Significant decline | $39,520 |
| Customer Service Representative | $31,522 | $33,527 | $35,360 | Moderate increase | $39,520 |
| Food Service Worker * | $26,633 | $30,452 | $34,902 | Moderate decline | $33,756 |
| Certified Nursing Assistant / Home Health Aide | $29,120 | $32,801 | $34,037 | Moderate decline | $41,106 |
| Administrative Assistant/Office Clerk | $30,604 | $38,651 | $39,707 | Stable | $43,680 |
| HVAC Technician | $52,000 | $60,424 | $70,200 | Significant increase | $70,720 |
| Registered Nurse | $80,607 | $89,504 | $97,175 | Stable | $102,581 |
| Software Engineer * | $113,828 | $151,646 | $165,000 | Moderate increase | $153,652 |
| Data Engineer * | $99,151 | $135,953 | $152,955 | Moderate increase | $139,500 |
| Accountant | $53,851 | $62,500 | $70,768 | Moderate increase | $72,182 |
| Financial Analyst | $51,050 | $71,289 | $72,827 | Stable | $94,782 |
| HR Generalist/Manager * | $54,965 | $68,969 | $80,668 | Moderate increase | $75,000 |
| Marketing Specialist * | $46,361 | $59,253 | $70,614 | Stable | $62,354 |
| Operations Manager * | $65,000 | $81,400 | $91,730 | Moderate increase | $85,216 |
| Elementary/Secondary School Teacher | $24,960 | $51,376 | $55,509 | Stable | $56,731 |
| Account Manager | $62,500 | $85,000 | $85,000 | Significant increase | $92,749 |
| Warehouse Manager * | $54,937 | $80,500 | $99,000 | Moderate increase | $75,000 |
| Business Analyst | $67,600 | $76,560 | $79,427 | Significant decline | $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 | $77,615 | Moderate decline | Significant increase |
| Manufacturing | $62,901 | Significant increase | Significant increase |
| Retail Trade | $35,360 | Significant increase | Significant increase |
| Transportation, Warehousing & Utilities | $44,200 | Moderate decline | Significant increase |
| Information | $50,044 | Significant increase | Significant increase |
| Financial Activities | $60,356 | Significant increase | Significant decline |
| Professional & Business Services | $37,440 | Moderate decline | Significant increase |
| Education & Health Services | $42,500 | Significant decline | Significant increase |
| Leisure & Hospitality | $31,200 | Moderate decline | Significant increase |
| Government | $67,687 | Significant increase | Significant increase |
Local market conditions
Glynn County's unemployment rate held near 2.70% in July, well below both the state's 3.2% and the national 4.1% reading, as port, hospitality, and health-care activity continue to anchor a labor market tighter than the national trend. Brunswick MSA nonfarm employment reached 48,097 in Q1, up 3.8% year-over-year, with wage gains concentrated in Financial Activities (+19.7%) and Other Services (+17.1%), a pattern consistent with services-sector expansion outpacing the national slowdown in white-collar hiring.
What it means
Local labor market conditions are tighter than both state and national benchmarks, which is consistent with a business climate still favorable to expansion even as national payroll growth has slowed to roughly 29,000 jobs in September. Commerce leaders weighing site selection, capital investment, or workforce-development funding should treat Brunswick's sub-3% unemployment rate and above-national wage momentum in services as a signal of underlying demand rather than a statistical anomaly tied to seasonal tourism. Current conditions suggest local economic development planning should account for the gap between national wage-growth deceleration (3.0% annual, trailing 3.4% inflation) and Brunswick's stronger service-sector wage trends, since a widening local-national divergence has implications for consumer spending capacity and public revenue projections alike.
Looking ahead
Expected: September Brunswick MSA unemployment data has not yet been released; watch for confirmation of whether the sub-3% trend held through late summer or whether seasonal tourism cooling nudges the rate upward.
Worth watching: Open positions in the metro stood at 459 as of mid-September, a figure economic development offices should track month-to-month as a leading indicator of whether local demand is broadening beyond services into logistics and manufacturing.
Potential inflection point: National wage growth falling below inflation (3.0% vs 3.4%) for the first time since 2021 raises the question of whether Brunswick's above-average service-sector wage gains can persist if national purchasing power continues to erode consumer demand feeding the metro's tourism and retail base.
Emerging pressure point: Georgia's manufacturing WARN filings account for nearly 39% of all state layoff notices historically; any new filing activity touching Brunswick's industrial employers, following Radial's 164-worker 2025 notice, would be the clearest local test of whether national manufacturing softness is reaching the coast.
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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