Metro Job Market Pulse · General Market Conditions · October 2026
General Market Conditions Labor Market Report: Cleveland-Elyria-Mentor, OH MSA — October 2026
Cleveland's labor market is beating Ohio's, on jobs and wages alike.
Metro employment hit 1.104 million in June — a seven-year high — while Cuyahoga County wages rose 4.8% year-over-year, outpacing both the 4.1% national wage gain and Ohio's statewide labor-force contraction.
Free archive edition. Published by WageScape as sent to subscribers; data as of October 2026.
Key indicators
- Metro unemployment rate: 3.3% — vs 3.4% Ohio, 4.1% national (June/Sept 2026)
- Cuyahoga County wage growth: 4.8% YoY — Q1 2026, vs 4.1% national avg hourly earnings
- Metro nonfarm employment: 1.104 million — Highest since June 2019
- Ohio labor force participation: 61.2% — vs 61.8% national, declining since June 2025
Key takeaways
Cleveland's labor market is outperforming the state it sits in.
Metro nonfarm payrolls hit a seven-year high in June 2026 even as Ohio shed 5,000 jobs statewide in September and saw labor force participation slide to 61.2%. That gap matters for site-selection and investment conversations that benchmark Cleveland against other Ohio metros alongside the state average.
Wage growth here looks real.
Cuyahoga County's 4.8% year-over-year wage gain in Q1 2026 outpaces both the national 4.1% average hourly earnings growth and Ohio's broader pattern of inflation-adjusted wage declines. Construction laborer and operations manager advertised pay are both up significantly locally, pointing to wage pressure concentrated in roles tied to capital investment and project execution, distinct from broad-based consumer-facing wage inflation.
Layoff activity reads as routine.
Recent WARN filings in the metro — a Parma closure, a small Strongsville notice, a Cleveland-based cutback at First Brands Group — are scattered across employers and causes, with no concentration in a single industry. That pattern contrasts with Ohio's statewide manufacturing-led WARN total of 23 notices and 3,159 workers, suggesting the metro's industrial base has so far avoided the sharpest edge of statewide contraction.
Healthcare and skilled trades carry the metro's wage story.
Registered nurse pay is up moderately to $104,547 locally, and HVAC technician and electrician pay show moderate-to-stable gains, tracking national healthcare hiring strength and continued demand for trades tied to construction and infrastructure work. Retail and food-service pay, by contrast, sit flat or down locally, indicating momentum is uneven across the consumer-facing side of the local economy.
Median advertised pay by role — Cleveland-Elyria-Mentor, OH MSA
| Role | 25th percentile | Median advertised pay | 75th percentile | Metro trend | National median |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Retail Sales Associate | $24,214 | $29,802 | $33,280 | Stable | $33,340 |
| Retail Cashier | $24,960 | $29,120 | $31,200 | Stable | $31,268 |
| Warehouse/Fulfillment Associate | $32,388 | $37,440 | $40,560 | Stable | $38,480 |
| CDL Truck Driver | $59,150 | $84,129 | $96,969 | Stable | $78,872 |
| Delivery Driver | $30,865 | $36,958 | $45,240 | Moderate increase | $34,826 |
| Construction Laborer | $33,280 | $41,600 | $45,822 | Significant increase | $40,727 |
| Electrician | $66,000 | $75,669 | $83,000 | Stable | $71,835 |
| Manufacturing Production Worker/Assembler | $33,280 | $38,860 | $41,600 | Moderate increase | $39,520 |
| Customer Service Representative | $31,706 | $38,562 | $43,409 | Stable | $39,520 |
| Food Service Worker | $27,751 | $30,161 | $32,240 | Moderate decline | $33,764 |
| Certified Nursing Assistant / Home Health Aide | $31,316 | $37,440 | $40,894 | Stable | $41,600 |
| Administrative Assistant/Office Clerk | $34,385 | $42,640 | $47,840 | Moderate increase | $44,552 |
| HVAC Technician | $56,160 | $67,600 | $74,755 | Moderate increase | $71,406 |
| Registered Nurse | $84,994 | $104,547 | $115,128 | Moderate increase | $102,252 |
| Software Engineer | $89,391 | $122,686 | $144,516 | Stable | $154,403 |
| Data Engineer | $94,381 | $124,568 | $136,000 | Moderate increase | $138,000 |
| Accountant | $59,228 | $72,500 | $82,337 | Moderate increase | $72,000 |
| Financial Analyst | $70,000 | $85,935 | $95,980 | Moderate decline | $94,646 |
| HR Generalist/Manager | $55,000 | $65,587 | $72,800 | Stable | $74,477 |
| Marketing Specialist | $51,891 | $65,218 | $72,492 | Significant increase | $62,916 |
| Operations Manager | $83,820 | $90,000 | $90,000 | Significant increase | $86,294 |
| Elementary/Secondary School Teacher | $33,280 | $44,725 | $48,221 | Significant increase | $55,908 |
| Account Manager | $62,500 | $90,000 | $111,121 | Moderate increase | $94,009 |
| Warehouse Manager * | $51,862 | $65,000 | $67,500 | Moderate decline | $75,000 |
| Business Analyst | $76,132 | $94,498 | $107,719 | Moderate increase | $98,302 |
* 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 | $65,000 | Moderate increase | Moderate decline |
| Manufacturing | $66,700 | Significant increase | Moderate decline |
| Retail Trade | $35,360 | Moderate increase | Significant decline |
| Transportation, Warehousing & Utilities | $55,000 | Stable | Significant decline |
| Information | $73,462 | Significant increase | Moderate increase |
| Financial Activities | $71,000 | Stable | Stable |
| Professional & Business Services | $80,109 | Significant increase | Significant decline |
| Education & Health Services | $60,000 | Significant increase | Significant decline |
| Leisure & Hospitality | $33,674 | Stable | Significant decline |
| Government | $66,793 | Significant increase | Significant decline |
Local market conditions
Cleveland metro nonfarm employment reached 1.104 million in June 2026, its highest level since June 2019, while the metro unemployment rate held at 3.3% — a stronger read than Ohio's statewide 3.4% and the national 4.1%. Cuyahoga County average weekly wages rose 4.8% year-over-year in Q1 2026 to $1,630, a pace that, if sustained through 2026, would outrun the national wage-vs-CPI gap showing up in state and federal data.
What it means
Cleveland's employment and wage trajectory diverges from the statewide pattern of labor force contraction and real-wage erosion, suggesting the metro's economic base — anchored in healthcare, manufacturing and professional services — is absorbing demographic and policy headwinds better than Ohio overall. Local WARN activity remains scattered and modest (single-site filings in Parma, Strongsville, and downtown Cleveland) across multiple sectors, which is consistent with a metro economy adjusting at the margins while avoiding broad contraction. Current conditions suggest commerce leaders evaluating expansion or investment timing should weigh Cleveland's county-level wage and employment resilience against the statewide labor-force participation decline, since a metro-level bright spot can mask thinner labor availability in surrounding counties that feed the Cleveland labor shed.
Looking ahead
Early indicator: County-level and MSA-level BLS data for October releases November 24 — watch whether Cuyahoga County's 4.8% wage growth and the metro's 3.3% unemployment rate hold, or whether Ohio's September statewide softening (5,000 jobs shed, participation down to 61.2%) begins to show up at the metro level with a lag.
Worth watching: Scattered WARN filings (Parma, Strongsville, downtown Cleveland) have stayed small and isolated through 2026. A shift toward larger or sector-concentrated notices, particularly in manufacturing given the statewide pattern, would be a meaningful change from this year's trend.
Emerging pressure point: Ohio's labor force participation has declined since June 2025 amid an aging population and slower immigration-driven labor force growth nationally. Commerce leaders should watch whether Cleveland's relatively strong employment numbers reflect an expanding labor supply or a shrinking denominator — the same employment count can read very differently depending on whether the labor force is growing or contracting underneath it.
Potential inflection point: Construction laborer pay (up significantly) and operations manager pay (up significantly) locally suggest continued capital project activity in the metro. Watch regional economic development announcements and permitting data over the next two months to see whether this wage pressure reflects a pipeline of new projects or competition for a fixed pool of skilled project labor.
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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