Metro Job Market Pulse · General Market Conditions · October 2026
General Market Conditions Labor Market Report: Kansas City, MO-KS MSA — October 2026
Kansas City jobs dip, but unemployment and wages stay strong.
Kansas City lost an estimated 4,200 jobs in September even as unemployment held at 3.4% and private wages rose roughly 4% year-over-year — a divergence that points to sector reallocation within the metro.
Free archive edition. Published by WageScape as sent to subscribers; data as of October 2026.
Key indicators
- Metro unemployment rate: 3.4% — vs 3.6% Missouri, 4.1% U.S. (Sept 2026)
- Metro job change, September: -4,200 — vs St. Louis +3,400 same month
- Metro private wage growth: +4% y/y — 3rd among benchmark metros
- Missouri federal employment change: -4,100 — September 2026, state-level
Key takeaways
Kansas City's jobs dip looks sectoral.
September's estimated 4,200-job metro decline contrasts with a 3.4% unemployment rate that remains below both the state and national figures. Losses concentrated in professional/business services and federal government, while healthcare and education kept adding workers — a pattern that points to concentrated softness in specific sectors rather than broad-based weakening.
Local wage growth is outrunning the national real-wage squeeze.
Metro private-sector hourly wages rose roughly 4% year-over-year, placing Kansas City third among benchmark metros, even as national median weekly earnings (+1.5%) trailed CPI (+3.5%) in the same period. That gap suggests local household purchasing power is holding up better than the national narrative, a relevant data point for any assessment of local consumer demand.
Federal employment pullback is a Missouri-wide signal worth tracking regionally.
Missouri federal government employment fell 4,100 in September, consistent with a national pattern of deferred resignations and early retirements pushing federal headcount toward 1966-era lows. Kansas City's substantial federal and government-adjacent employment base makes this a metric worth monitoring for secondary effects on public-sector contractors and services.
Healthcare's wage and hiring strength is the metro's clearest stabilizer.
Education and health services employment rose 2.4% year-over-year to 184,200 jobs, and Registered Nurse advertised pay is up moderately locally even as it trails the national median ($93,028 vs. $102,252). The sector's consistency offers a useful benchmark for gauging whether the metro's broader slowdown is isolated or spreading.
Median advertised pay by role — Kansas City, MO-KS MSA
| Role | 25th percentile | Median advertised pay | 75th percentile | Metro trend | National median |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Retail Sales Associate | $25,517 | $31,200 | $34,195 | Stable | $33,340 |
| Retail Cashier | $26,481 | $31,200 | $32,240 | Stable | $31,268 |
| Warehouse/Fulfillment Associate | $34,262 | $39,520 | $41,600 | Stable | $38,480 |
| CDL Truck Driver | $58,457 | $74,880 | $83,980 | Stable | $78,872 |
| Delivery Driver | $29,955 | $34,736 | $41,600 | Stable | $34,826 |
| Construction Laborer | $34,653 | $41,600 | $45,000 | Stable | $40,727 |
| Electrician | $59,280 | $72,470 | $80,615 | Moderate increase | $71,835 |
| Manufacturing Production Worker/Assembler | $33,650 | $38,948 | $41,600 | Stable | $39,520 |
| Customer Service Representative | $33,908 | $39,520 | $42,640 | Moderate increase | $39,520 |
| Food Service Worker | $29,204 | $34,486 | $35,874 | Moderate decline | $33,764 |
| Certified Nursing Assistant / Home Health Aide | $34,320 | $39,520 | $42,640 | Stable | $41,600 |
| Administrative Assistant/Office Clerk | $35,165 | $42,468 | $47,330 | Moderate decline | $44,552 |
| HVAC Technician | $57,200 | $69,534 | $72,800 | Significant increase | $71,406 |
| Registered Nurse | $80,507 | $93,028 | $102,360 | Moderate increase | $102,252 |
| Software Engineer | $103,426 | $131,584 | $149,150 | Stable | $154,403 |
| Data Engineer | $95,800 | $121,386 | $139,500 | Moderate decline | $138,000 |
| Accountant | $60,000 | $70,000 | $77,827 | Moderate increase | $72,000 |
| Financial Analyst | $70,661 | $87,500 | $95,000 | Moderate increase | $94,646 |
| HR Generalist/Manager | $58,982 | $70,341 | $80,000 | Stable | $74,477 |
| Marketing Specialist | $46,800 | $58,279 | $64,768 | Significant decline | $62,916 |
| Operations Manager | $71,349 | $85,634 | $90,000 | Moderate increase | $86,294 |
| Elementary/Secondary School Teacher | $34,819 | $50,088 | $56,348 | Moderate increase | $55,908 |
| Account Manager | $60,189 | $85,570 | $103,009 | Moderate increase | $94,009 |
| Warehouse Manager | $99,839 | $103,119 | $103,119 | Stable | $75,000 |
| Business Analyst | $78,024 | $93,145 | $106,392 | Moderate increase | $98,302 |
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 | $72,406 | Significant increase | Significant increase |
| Manufacturing | $74,317 | Significant increase | Significant increase |
| Retail Trade | $38,586 | Moderate increase | Moderate increase |
| Transportation, Warehousing & Utilities | $57,059 | Moderate increase | Moderate increase |
| Information | $90,000 | Significant increase | Significant increase |
| Financial Activities | $67,639 | Significant decline | Significant decline |
| Professional & Business Services | $73,000 | Moderate increase | Moderate increase |
| Education & Health Services | $74,066 | Significant increase | Stable |
| Leisure & Hospitality | $33,549 | Stable | Significant decline |
| Government | $67,558 | Significant increase | Significant decline |
Local market conditions
Kansas City's September unemployment rate held at 3.4%, tighter than both Missouri's 3.6% and the national 4.1% rate, even as Missouri's September jobs report showed the metro losing an estimated 4,200 positions while St. Louis gained 3,400 — a divergence that points to uneven sector exposure within the metro. Education and health services continues to anchor local employment growth (184,200 jobs, up 2.4% year-over-year), while declines concentrated in professional and business services, private education/health, trade/transportation, and a 4,100-job pullback in federal government employment.
What it means
Metro-level job losses alongside a historically low unemployment rate suggest a labor market reallocating workers across sectors — a distinction that matters for how commerce leaders read local demand signals before committing to expansion or facility decisions. Average hourly private wages in the metro remain up roughly 4% year-over-year, ranking third among benchmark metros even as national real wages erode against inflation, which points to a resilient local consumer base relative to national headlines. Current conditions suggest commerce leaders and economic development officials track the metro's sector-level divergence — healthcare strength against professional-services softness — before drawing conclusions from the single-month jobs figure.
Looking ahead
Worth watching: Missouri's metro divergence — St. Louis gains against Kansas City losses in the same September report — warrants a second data point before treating either reading as a trend. Watch October state jobs data for whether Kansas City's dip persists or reverses.
Emerging pressure point: Federal employment contraction in Missouri (-4,100 in September) and national trends toward historically low federal staffing levels could ripple into Kansas City's sizable government and federal-contractor presence. Local economic development offices may want to track downstream effects on regional services spending.
Early indicator: Job ads, a signal of hiring demand (one ad often covers several openings), show continued strength in healthcare and skilled trades locally, per Full Employment Council reporting of over 24,000 job ads in system earlier this year. Whether that demand signal holds through year-end will help distinguish seasonal softness from a structural shift.
Potential inflection point: National wage-vs-CPI compression (nominal wages +3.6%, real wages -0.11% year-over-year) has not yet fully shown up in Kansas City's wage data, which remains comparatively strong. A convergence toward the national pattern in coming months would be a signal worth flagging for consumer-spending forecasts.
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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