Metro Job Market Pulse · General Market Conditions · September 2026
General Market Conditions Labor Market Report: Logan, UT-ID MSA — September 2026
Logan holds 3.1% unemployment while government payrolls shrink.
Cache County's 3.1% unemployment rate — tied for lowest in Utah — coexists with an 11.3% August drop in Local Government employment, a split that commerce leaders and policy economists should watch closely.
Free archive edition. Published by WageScape as sent to subscribers; data as of September 2026.
Key indicators
- Cache County unemployment rate: 3.1% — vs 3.5% Utah, 4.1% national
- Local Government employment change: -11.3% — August 2026, Logan MSA, YoY
- Professional/Business Services growth: +5.5% — August 2026, Logan MSA
- Cache County avg weekly wage: $1,054 — Q1 2026, below Utah state average
Key takeaways
Government contraction stands out against broader metro tightness.
Local Government employment fell 11.3% in August against a backdrop of 3.1% unemployment, consistent with the $12.7M northern Utah budget shortfall cited statewide. A metro this tight on labor rarely shows public-sector payroll losses this steep, making it a genuine outlier worth monitoring for municipal budget planning.
Professional services and hospitality are doing the metro's heavy lifting.
Professional/Business Services grew 5.5% and Leisure/Hospitality 6.9% in August, mirroring the statewide pattern where professional services led job gains (+8,500 statewide YTD). Logan's growth is concentrated rather than broad-based, a distinction that matters for anyone reading one tight unemployment number as uniform strength.
Transportation and warehousing softness may reflect a national divergence.
Logan's 8.3% decline in Transportation/Warehousing employment lines up with a national freight and logistics sector that has shown pockets of softness even as CDL driver advertised pay locally rose moderately to $84,525. The combination — fewer positions, firmer pay for the roles that remain — is consistent with a sector consolidating rather than expanding.
Wage data diverges by geography more than by occupation.
Cache County's $1,054 average weekly wage trails the statewide figure, while county-level Utah wage growth ranges from 1.2% to 4.8% depending on location, underscoring that Logan's wage story cannot be read off state or national headlines. Local purchasing-power assessments should rely on county-specific figures, not statewide averages.
Median advertised pay by role — Logan, UT-ID MSA
| Role | 25th percentile | Median advertised pay | 75th percentile | Metro trend | National median |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Retail Sales Associate | $24,135 | $28,600 | $32,117 | Significant decline | $33,325 |
| Retail Cashier | $24,419 | $29,307 | $31,200 | Stable | $31,200 |
| Warehouse/Fulfillment Associate | $31,678 | $36,409 | $39,520 | Stable | $38,000 |
| CDL Truck Driver | $62,252 | $84,525 | $91,177 | Moderate increase | $78,000 |
| Delivery Driver | $29,228 | $31,946 | $33,299 | Significant decline | $34,344 |
| Construction Laborer | $36,756 | $43,264 | $43,264 | Moderate increase | $40,560 |
| Electrician | $58,640 | $73,359 | $73,359 | Moderate increase | $71,404 |
| Manufacturing Production Worker/Assembler | $33,292 | $37,648 | $41,600 | Significant decline | $39,520 |
| Customer Service Representative | $31,200 | $42,409 | $44,776 | Significant increase | $39,520 |
| Food Service Worker * | $29,277 | $34,091 | $37,394 | Moderate decline | $33,756 |
| Certified Nursing Assistant / Home Health Aide | $32,240 | $36,414 | $42,344 | Stable | $41,106 |
| Administrative Assistant/Office Clerk | $33,278 | $41,600 | $44,720 | Stable | $43,680 |
| HVAC Technician | $62,400 | $62,400 | $63,085 | Significant decline | $70,720 |
| Registered Nurse | $74,880 | $90,538 | $95,017 | Stable | $102,581 |
| Software Engineer | $49,970 | $101,026 | $124,964 | Moderate decline | $153,652 |
| Data Engineer * | $99,248 | $143,184 | $159,248 | Moderate increase | $139,500 |
| Accountant | $54,482 | $61,080 | $68,731 | Moderate decline | $72,182 |
| Financial Analyst * | $71,895 | $92,500 | $101,669 | Moderate increase | $94,782 |
| HR Generalist/Manager | $40,491 | $75,000 | $83,661 | Significant increase | $75,000 |
| Marketing Specialist | $48,801 | $57,855 | $60,000 | Significant increase | $62,354 |
| Operations Manager * | $72,997 | $82,974 | $95,108 | Significant increase | $85,216 |
| Elementary/Secondary School Teacher | $31,574 | $49,980 | $68,149 | Significant increase | $56,731 |
| Account Manager | $57,019 | $82,357 | $88,583 | Moderate increase | $92,749 |
| Warehouse Manager * | $46,118 | $54,301 | $55,000 | Significant decline | $75,000 |
| Business Analyst | $76,257 | $83,244 | $83,245 | Moderate decline | $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 | $46,800 | Significant decline | Significant increase |
| Manufacturing | $47,112 | Stable | Significant increase |
| Retail Trade | $35,737 | Stable | Significant increase |
| Transportation, Warehousing & Utilities | $66,346 | Significant increase | Significant increase |
| Information | $75,907 | Significant increase | Significant increase |
| Financial Activities | $43,680 | Stable | Significant increase |
| Professional & Business Services | $52,000 | Significant increase | Significant increase |
| Education & Health Services | $43,243 | Moderate increase | Significant increase |
| Leisure & Hospitality | $29,816 | Moderate decline | Significant increase |
| Government | $66,994 | Significant increase | Significant increase |
Local market conditions
Cache County's 3.1% unemployment rate continues to run well below both the Utah (3.5%) and national (4.1%) rates, even as the Logan MSA's total nonfarm employment held flat at 69.5 thousand in August, masking sharp divergence underneath — Leisure/Hospitality up 6.9% and Professional/Business Services up 5.5%, against an 11.3% contraction in Local Government and an 8.3% drop in Transportation/Warehousing. That split, layered onto a statewide pattern of flat labor force growth despite low joblessness, suggests a metro economy still tight on labor supply but increasingly selective about where growth is concentrated.
What it means
Local Government's double-digit contraction, consistent with the $12.7M northern Utah budget shortfall and federal civilian reductions noted statewide, signals that public-sector payroll stability — a traditional anchor for metro consumer spending — is weakening at the same time private services sectors expand. For commerce leaders and economic development planners, a metro running near full employment while government payrolls shrink points to private services and hospitality as the active growth engines worth tracking for investment and site-selection signals. Consider evaluating how Logan's sector mix — manufacturing concentration alongside expanding professional services — positions the metro relative to statewide trends when making local investment or expansion assessments.
Looking ahead
Emerging pressure point: Local Government payroll contraction (-11.3% in August) tied to a documented northern Utah budget shortfall bears watching for further municipal service or public-sector payroll effects over the next two months.
Worth watching: Utah's labor force growth has gone flat even as unemployment stays low — a pattern that, if it persists in Cache County, could cap the metro's capacity to support continued Professional/Business Services and hospitality expansion.
Potential inflection point: National wage growth has slipped to 3.0% against 3.4% inflation — the first real-wage erosion signal in two years. Whether Cache County's wage trends (currently mixed by sector) follow this national drift is a key test for local consumer spending durability.
Early indicator: National WARN activity shows elevated layoffs at large employers (Amazon, Meta, Verizon, among others) even as Utah's WARN notices actually declined 11% year over year. Divergence between national headline layoff anxiety and Utah's comparatively stable filings is worth tracking as a local economic resilience marker.
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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