Metro Job Market Pulse · General Market Conditions · September 2026
General Market Conditions Labor Market Report: Evansville, IN-KY MSA — September 2026
Evansville's jobless rate defies a cooling national labor market.
Evansville's 2.5% unemployment rate sits nearly two points below the 4.2% national figure even as U.S. hiring slowed to 29,000 jobs in September and wage growth fell behind inflation nationally.
Free archive edition. Published by WageScape as sent to subscribers; data as of September 2026.
Key indicators
- Metro unemployment rate: 2.5% — vs 4.1-4.2% national, Apr 2026 reading
- National payroll growth: 29,000 jobs — Sept 2026, down from 45k 12-mo avg
- National wage growth vs inflation: 3.0% vs 3.4% CPI — First real-wage gap in two years
- Indiana labor force participation: 63% — Down 0.8 pts over 12 months, still above 61.8% US
Key takeaways
Evansville's unemployment edge over the nation is widening, not narrowing.
A 2.5% metro rate against a 4.1-4.2% national rate places Evansville among the tightest labor markets in its metro size class, even as national hiring cools sharply. That gap is a defensible, quotable signal of local economic resilience independent of the national slowdown narrative.
Manufacturing capital commitments are translating into visible metro activity.
TaylorMade's multimillion-dollar Vanderburgh County expansion and Indiana's statewide push into advanced manufacturing and agbioscience (570 new high-wage jobs announced in September) reinforce that the metro's industrial base is still attracting investment despite national manufacturing softness.
White-collar pay softness locally may reflect a narrower, sector-specific cooling.
Advertised pay for software engineers, accountants and administrative roles in Evansville is down significantly while national figures for the same roles hold flat or rise, a divergence that is consistent with thinner local demand for professional-services talent rather than a broad metro slowdown.
Healthcare wage strength offers a counterweight to softer sectors.
Registered Nurse pay rose sharply both locally ($102,472) and nationally, tracking with Deaconess and Ascension St. Vincent's continued anchor role in the metro's employment base — a sign the health care cluster remains a stabilizing force in overall labor income.
Median advertised pay by role — Evansville, IN-KY MSA
| Role | 25th percentile | Median advertised pay | 75th percentile | Metro trend | National median |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Retail Sales Associate | $22,225 | $27,656 | $32,648 | Moderate decline | $33,325 |
| Retail Cashier | $23,453 | $27,040 | $29,276 | Moderate decline | $31,200 |
| Warehouse/Fulfillment Associate | $31,504 | $36,335 | $39,520 | Moderate decline | $38,000 |
| CDL Truck Driver | $57,538 | $76,493 | $88,400 | Stable | $78,000 |
| Delivery Driver | $29,410 | $34,418 | $43,680 | Significant decline | $34,344 |
| Construction Laborer | $32,830 | $41,600 | $43,680 | Significant decline | $40,560 |
| Electrician | $57,542 | $70,941 | $77,355 | Stable | $71,404 |
| Manufacturing Production Worker/Assembler | $30,160 | $37,440 | $38,194 | Moderate decline | $39,520 |
| Customer Service Representative | $33,083 | $37,440 | $38,480 | Stable | $39,520 |
| Food Service Worker | $26,664 | $31,200 | $31,200 | Stable | $33,756 |
| Certified Nursing Assistant / Home Health Aide | $33,216 | $37,440 | $40,560 | Stable | $41,106 |
| Administrative Assistant/Office Clerk | $32,898 | $39,193 | $42,107 | Significant decline | $43,680 |
| HVAC Technician | $62,400 | $75,000 | $76,169 | Significant decline | $70,720 |
| Registered Nurse | $81,667 | $102,472 | $108,080 | Significant increase | $102,581 |
| Software Engineer | $82,521 | $115,280 | $157,998 | Significant decline | $153,652 |
| Data Engineer * | $92,885 | $123,169 | $140,680 | Stable | $139,500 |
| Accountant | $52,338 | $63,914 | $72,667 | Moderate decline | $72,182 |
| Financial Analyst | $68,193 | $88,400 | $95,411 | Significant increase | $94,782 |
| HR Generalist/Manager | $38,998 | $58,540 | $68,741 | Moderate decline | $75,000 |
| Marketing Specialist | $43,387 | $56,127 | $57,336 | Moderate increase | $62,354 |
| Operations Manager * | $72,499 | $81,721 | $90,187 | Moderate increase | $85,216 |
| Elementary/Secondary School Teacher | $31,200 | $49,545 | $56,159 | Moderate increase | $56,731 |
| Account Manager | $60,000 | $80,000 | $90,805 | Moderate increase | $92,749 |
| Warehouse Manager * | $63,750 | $65,401 | $67,500 | Significant decline | $75,000 |
| Business Analyst | $70,663 | $92,686 | $95,680 | 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 | $59,430 | Significant increase | Significant increase |
| Manufacturing | $60,996 | Significant increase | Significant increase |
| Retail Trade | $37,164 | Stable | Significant increase |
| Transportation, Warehousing & Utilities | $62,378 | Significant increase | Significant increase |
| Information | $106,992 | Significant increase | Significant increase |
| Financial Activities | $61,360 | Moderate increase | Significant increase |
| Professional & Business Services | $58,810 | Significant increase | Significant increase |
| Education & Health Services | $78,868 | Significant increase | Significant increase |
| Leisure & Hospitality | $31,200 | Moderate decline | Significant increase |
| Government | $66,071 | Significant increase | Significant increase |
Local market conditions
Evansville's labor market continues to run tighter than both state and national benchmarks, with the metro's April 2026 unemployment rate of 2.5% among the lowest of any mid-sized metro nationally, even as national hiring has slowed sharply to 29,000 jobs added in September and wage growth nationally has fallen behind inflation for the first time in two years. Local momentum is concentrated in advanced manufacturing and logistics-adjacent professional services, reinforced by named capital commitments like TaylorMade's 53-acre Vanderburgh County warehouse expansion, while advertised pay for several metro roles — software engineering, accounting, administrative support — is moving down even as national counterparts hold flat or rise, suggesting the metro's wage story is diverging from the national one in both directions depending on sector.
What it means
Local economic conditions point to a two-speed metro economy: tight labor supply and sub-3% unemployment in production and logistics roles signal genuine capacity constraints for manufacturing and distribution expansion, while declining advertised pay in office, technical and administrative occupations suggests softer demand in white-collar segments that commerce leaders should not assume mirrors the national professional-services slowdown for the same reasons. Public-sector and healthcare wage stability — Registered Nurse pay up significantly both locally and nationally — offers a steadying anchor for consumer spending capacity even as cyclical sectors cool. Commerce and economic development leaders may want to evaluate whether current site-selection and investment messaging accurately reflects this split between a resilient industrial base and a softening local professional-services segment.
Looking ahead
Expected release: BLS and the Indiana Department of Workforce Development are due to publish official September metro unemployment figures in early October; confirm whether the 2.5% April reading has held or drifted given national deceleration.
Worth watching: Indiana's statewide labor force participation rate has slipped 0.8 points over 12 months to 63%; watch whether Evansville's participation follows that statewide softening, which would matter for commerce leaders assessing available local workforce capacity.
Emerging pressure point: National WARN activity is elevated among large employers (Amazon, Meta, Tyson, FedEx, Kroger) and Indiana logged 24 WARN notices affecting 3,646 workers in 2026; no major Evansville-specific filings have surfaced, but regional logistics and manufacturing exposure warrants monitoring.
Potential inflection point: National wage growth has fallen below inflation (3.0% vs 3.4% CPI) for the first time in two years; if that gap persists, local consumer spending capacity across retail and services sectors may soften even where unemployment stays low.
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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