Metro Job Market Pulse · General Market Conditions · September 2026
General Market Conditions Labor Market Report: Hinesville-Fort Stewart, GA MSA — September 2026
Hinesville's flat job count hides a health-care-led sector split.
Metro unemployment sits at a tight 3.9%, but Education and Health Services wages rose 9.1% even as manufacturing employment fell 8.3% and government payrolls dropped 8.4% year-over-year.
Free archive edition. Published by WageScape as sent to subscribers; data as of September 2026.
Key indicators
- Metro unemployment rate: 3.9% — vs 4.2% national, 3.2% Georgia
- Education/Health Services wage growth: +9.1% — Weekly wages, alongside 4.1% employment growth
- Manufacturing employment change: -8.3% — Q1 2026, with a 5.5% wage decline
- Government employment change: -8.4% — Year-over-year, Q1 2026, tied to Fort Stewart staffing
Key takeaways
Flat job count conceals a sector reshuffle, not stability.
Total metro jobs held at 22,100, but Education and Health Services expanded 4.1% while manufacturing shrank 8.3% and government fell 8.4% year-over-year. A headline number showing no change can obscure meaningful structural movement underneath it.
Health care wages are the clearest growth signal in the metro.
A 9.1% weekly wage increase in Education and Health Services, paired with 4.1% employment growth, suggests this sector is absorbing demand that manufacturing and logistics are shedding. Registered Nurse advertised pay rising moderately to $94,827 locally reinforces that this is a durable trend, not a one-quarter blip.
Trades pay is rising while logistics pay is falling sharply.
Construction Laborer and Manufacturing Production Worker advertised pay both moved up locally even as CDL Truck Driver, Warehouse/Fulfillment, and Delivery Driver pay fell significantly. That split points to tightening labor supply in hands-on trades work against softening local freight and warehouse activity.
Fort Stewart staffing adjustments remain the metro's quiet wildcard.
Government employment's 8.4% year-over-year decline in Q1 2026 reflects military-linked staffing shifts rather than a broad public-sector retreat, but it still removes a traditionally stable source of local payroll growth. Government economists tracking labor-force participation should watch whether displaced workers re-enter the local labor force or leave the metro.
Median advertised pay by role — Hinesville-Fort Stewart, GA MSA
| Role | 25th percentile | Median advertised pay | 75th percentile | Metro trend | National median |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Retail Sales Associate | $22,150 | $31,200 | $38,404 | Stable | $33,325 |
| Retail Cashier | $23,920 | $28,016 | $29,560 | Moderate decline | $31,200 |
| Warehouse/Fulfillment Associate | $31,089 | $35,360 | $36,549 | Significant decline | $38,000 |
| CDL Truck Driver | $60,531 | $76,140 | $88,400 | Significant decline | $78,000 |
| Delivery Driver | $28,768 | $31,603 | $32,420 | Significant decline | $34,344 |
| Construction Laborer | $28,491 | $39,538 | $44,720 | Significant increase | $40,560 |
| Electrician | $56,659 | $60,566 | $67,326 | Stable | $71,404 |
| Manufacturing Production Worker/Assembler | $33,800 | $35,119 | $35,481 | Moderate increase | $39,520 |
| Customer Service Representative | $30,576 | $32,554 | $37,486 | Significant decline | $39,520 |
| Food Service Worker | $37,918 | $40,995 | $41,080 | Stable | $33,756 |
| Certified Nursing Assistant / Home Health Aide | $31,711 | $34,032 | $35,325 | Stable | $41,106 |
| Administrative Assistant/Office Clerk | $31,200 | $34,690 | $39,115 | Significant decline | $43,680 |
| HVAC Technician * | $57,200 | $67,386 | $74,188 | Moderate increase | $70,720 |
| Registered Nurse | $80,004 | $94,827 | $102,232 | Moderate increase | $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 * | $55,721 | $67,548 | $75,000 | Moderate increase | $72,182 |
| Financial Analyst * | $66,944 | $90,889 | $98,907 | Stable | $94,782 |
| HR Generalist/Manager | $52,000 | $61,041 | $65,000 | Significant increase | $75,000 |
| Marketing Specialist * | $46,361 | $59,253 | $70,614 | Stable | $62,354 |
| Operations Manager | $76,992 | $76,993 | $88,149 | Stable | $85,216 |
| Elementary/Secondary School Teacher | $26,000 | $55,906 | $63,450 | Significant increase | $56,731 |
| Account Manager * | $63,804 | $90,000 | $106,257 | Significant increase | $92,749 |
| Warehouse Manager * | $54,937 | $80,500 | $99,000 | Moderate increase | $75,000 |
| Business Analyst * | $80,206 | $96,510 | $107,200 | Stable | $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 | $55,587 | Significant decline | Significant increase |
| Manufacturing | $74,000 | Significant increase | Significant increase |
| Retail Trade | $37,440 | Stable | Significant increase |
| Transportation, Warehousing & Utilities | $61,500 | Significant increase | Significant increase |
| Information | $39,915 | Stable | Significant decline |
| Financial Activities | $43,680 | Significant decline | Significant increase |
| Professional & Business Services | $43,680 | Significant decline | Significant increase |
| Education & Health Services | $57,000 | Moderate increase | Significant increase |
| Leisure & Hospitality | $28,768 | Stable | Significant increase |
| Government | $66,613 | Significant increase | Significant increase |
Local market conditions
Hinesville's 3.9% unemployment rate holds well below the 4.2% national mark, with the metro's 22,100 jobs essentially flat over the year — a plateau rather than a contraction, consistent with Fort Stewart's role as a stabilizing but not expanding employment base. Beneath that calm surface, sector divergence has sharpened: Education and Health Services employment grew 4.1% with a 9.1% weekly wage bump, while manufacturing contracted 8.3% in employment and 5.5% in wages, and government payrolls fell 8.4% year-over-year in Q1 2026 amid military staffing adjustments.
What it means
Flat headline job counts mask a local economy quietly reallocating toward health care and services and away from manufacturing and public payrolls — a signal for commerce leaders weighing expansion that growth capacity is concentrated, not broad-based, and for economists tracking whether Fort Stewart's staffing patterns continue to dampen the public-sector contribution to local income growth. Advertised pay divergence reinforces this split: Construction Laborer and Manufacturing Production Worker wages are rising locally even as Warehouse/Fulfillment, CDL Truck Driver, and Administrative Assistant pay fall significantly, pointing to tightening in trades-adjacent work against softening in logistics and office support. Commerce leaders evaluating site investment or expansion locally should weigh this uneven sector performance against metro-wide unemployment, which overstates how uniformly healthy conditions actually are.
Looking ahead
Worth watching: Manufacturing's 8.3% employment decline and 5.5% wage drop warrant tracking against Georgia's statewide manufacturing WARN activity, which accounts for nearly 39% of the state's historical WARN-triggered layoffs. A continued slide locally would diverge from Georgia's otherwise record employment levels.
Early indicator: Information sector employment grew 39.5% from a small base — too early to call a trend, but worth confirming whether this reflects a specific employer move or broader diversification away from the metro's traditional manufacturing and logistics mix.
Potential inflection point: Government employment's year-over-year decline tied to Fort Stewart staffing adjustments bears watching for any shift in federal posture on base staffing, which would ripple through local retail and services spending given the installation's outsized share of metro income.
Expected: Statewide wage growth (3.3% in Q1 2026) running ahead of the metro's softer segments suggests local wage-vs-inflation dynamics may lag the state's trajectory; a widening gap would be relevant to any economic development messaging built on wage competitiveness.
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.