Metro Job Market Pulse · General Market Conditions · September 2026
General Market Conditions Labor Market Report: Chattanooga, TN-GA MSA — September 2026
Chattanooga holds steady as manufacturing drags, services carry growth.
Hamilton County unemployment sat at 3.8% in June with statewide wages up 4.4% year-over-year, even as manufacturing layoff filings and a lagging position behind Nashville's Oracle-fueled expansion temper the metro's momentum.
Free archive edition. Published by WageScape as sent to subscribers; data as of September 2026.
Key indicators
- Hamilton County unemployment: 3.8% — June 2026, vs 4.1% national rate
- Tennessee weekly wage growth: 4.4% — YoY through Q1 2026, state ranked 12th nationally
- Manufacturing WARN exposure: 3,466 workers — Leading sector in TN's 24-month WARN total
- Nashville vs. Chattanooga job adds: 28,000+ — Nashville 12-mo gain vs. Chattanooga's slower pace
Key takeaways
Manufacturing softness is the metro's clearest drag on momentum.
Statewide manufacturing contracted slightly while Tennessee WARN filings show manufacturing as the leading cause of layoff notices over the past 24 months (22 filings, 3,466 workers). Chattanooga's long-standing manufacturing base makes this a structural watch point, not a one-month blip.
Chattanooga wage gains diverge sharply by occupation type.
Financial analyst and accountant pay rose significantly locally even as software engineer pay fell significantly — a pattern distinct from the national trend of flat tech pay. This suggests Chattanooga's growth is concentrated in traditional professional services rather than tech-sector expansion, relevant for economic development messaging.
Local wage-vs-inflation picture looks more favorable than the nation's.
National average hourly earnings growth has slowed to 3.0% against 3.4% inflation, eroding real purchasing power broadly. Tennessee's weekly wages rose a stronger 4.4% year-over-year through Q1 2026, suggesting the state — and likely Chattanooga — may be better insulated from the national real-wage squeeze, though local wage data lags and warrants caution.
Nashville's pull is reshaping the state's growth map.
Nashville added over 28,000 jobs in twelve months on the back of Oracle's $1.2 billion investment, while smaller metros including Chattanooga lagged. Commerce leaders should treat statewide headline growth figures skeptically when assessing Chattanooga-specific conditions.
Median advertised pay by role — Chattanooga, TN-GA MSA
| Role | 25th percentile | Median advertised pay | 75th percentile | Metro trend | National median |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Retail Sales Associate | $22,829 | $27,040 | $30,734 | Stable | $33,325 |
| Retail Cashier | $21,559 | $25,067 | $27,002 | Moderate decline | $31,200 |
| Warehouse/Fulfillment Associate | $30,057 | $33,861 | $36,389 | Moderate decline | $38,000 |
| CDL Truck Driver | $52,635 | $78,000 | $89,038 | Moderate increase | $78,000 |
| Delivery Driver | $28,281 | $32,401 | $37,357 | Stable | $34,344 |
| Construction Laborer | $30,900 | $37,648 | $43,597 | Stable | $40,560 |
| Electrician | $56,735 | $65,466 | $69,615 | Significant increase | $71,404 |
| Manufacturing Production Worker/Assembler | $31,524 | $37,591 | $38,480 | Moderate increase | $39,520 |
| Customer Service Representative | $31,394 | $36,423 | $39,740 | Moderate increase | $39,520 |
| Food Service Worker | $25,130 | $31,200 | $32,405 | Stable | $33,756 |
| Certified Nursing Assistant / Home Health Aide | $31,200 | $34,077 | $34,951 | Stable | $41,106 |
| Administrative Assistant/Office Clerk | $31,574 | $37,766 | $44,720 | Stable | $43,680 |
| HVAC Technician | $55,000 | $60,442 | $64,480 | Moderate increase | $70,720 |
| Registered Nurse | $75,957 | $89,446 | $98,211 | Moderate increase | $102,581 |
| Software Engineer | $78,584 | $102,714 | $127,495 | Significant decline | $153,652 |
| Data Engineer | $85,306 | $117,753 | $123,874 | Stable | $139,500 |
| Accountant | $56,985 | $71,731 | $72,297 | Moderate increase | $72,182 |
| Financial Analyst | $66,410 | $83,832 | $90,100 | Significant increase | $94,782 |
| HR Generalist/Manager | $49,920 | $65,312 | $75,229 | Significant increase | $75,000 |
| Marketing Specialist | $40,463 | $51,337 | $53,964 | Moderate increase | $62,354 |
| Operations Manager | $63,747 | $72,500 | $73,852 | Stable | $85,216 |
| Elementary/Secondary School Teacher | $33,280 | $50,000 | $55,493 | Stable | $56,731 |
| Account Manager | $51,087 | $70,000 | $88,207 | Moderate decline | $92,749 |
| Warehouse Manager * | $50,835 | $66,854 | $73,610 | Stable | $75,000 |
| Business Analyst | $76,025 | $93,732 | $104,000 | 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 | $45,383 | Moderate increase | Significant increase |
| Manufacturing | $60,049 | Moderate increase | Stable |
| Retail Trade | $35,434 | Significant increase | Moderate decline |
| Transportation, Warehousing & Utilities | $62,154 | Significant increase | Significant decline |
| Information | $68,157 | Significant increase | Stable |
| Financial Activities | $75,567 | Significant increase | Moderate increase |
| Professional & Business Services | $55,000 | Moderate decline | Moderate increase |
| Education & Health Services | $64,401 | Stable | Moderate increase |
| Leisure & Hospitality | $29,745 | Moderate decline | Stable |
| Government | $66,620 | Significant increase | Significant decline |
Local market conditions
Chattanooga's labor market remains comparatively tight — Hamilton County unemployment ran 3.8% in June and the broader metro held near 3.4% as of late 2025 — but momentum has split along sector lines, with manufacturing contraction offsetting continued strength in healthcare and logistics-adjacent hiring. Statewide job growth has cooled to roughly 0.9% projected for 2026, well below Tennessee's historical pace, and Chattanooga's gains lag Nashville's tech- and investment-driven expansion, suggesting the metro's momentum is steady but no longer accelerating.
What it means
Soft manufacturing employment alongside firm healthcare demand points to an economy where overall labor supply is adequate but unevenly distributed across sectors — a relevant signal for economic development corps weighing incentive packages or site-selection pitches tied to specific industries. Commerce leaders evaluating expansion timing should weigh that Chattanooga's wage growth in several white-collar categories (financial analyst, accountant) is outpacing stable-to-declining categories like software engineering and retail, consistent with a local economy still anchored in traditional services and logistics rather than tech. Current conditions suggest monitoring sector-specific momentum before assuming metro-wide tightness applies uniformly across the business base.
Looking ahead
Emerging pressure point: Manufacturing remains the state's most layoff-exposed sector, and Chattanooga's industrial base is more manufacturing-dependent than Nashville's. Watch whether WARN filings or plant-level announcements emerge locally over the next two months.
Potential inflection point: UT Chattanooga's Center for Regional Economic Research projected 3,200 new metro jobs for 2026, concentrated in the second half of the year. Whether that materializes will be a key test of whether the metro's growth is merely stabilizing or re-accelerating.
Worth watching: National government payrolls have shed workers for twelve straight months (down 216,000), while Tennessee's August gains were led partly by local government and education. Local public-sector stability may be diverging from the national trend, worth confirming as more data arrives.
Early indicator: Tariff and immigration-enforcement policy continue to surface as supply-chain and labor-availability variables in Boyd Center commentary, without yet showing a clear Chattanooga-specific effect. Track whether logistics- or manufacturing-heavy employers cite either factor directly in coming announcements.
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.
Free to read and cite with attribution to WageScape. Terms of use.