Metro Job Market Pulse · General Market Conditions · October 2026
General Market Conditions Labor Market Report: Logan, UT-ID MSA — October 2026
Logan's low jobless rate hides a split in professional pay.
Logan MSA unemployment sits at 3.1%, the tightest reading in the state-national comparison, even as advertised pay for accountants and software engineers fell locally while customer service pay rose to $42,409, above the national median.
Free archive edition. Published by WageScape as sent to subscribers; data as of October 2026.
Key indicators
- Logan MSA unemployment: 3.1% — vs 3.5% Utah, 4.1% national (July 2026)
- Accountant advertised pay: $56,678 — down significantly vs flat $72,000 national
- Customer service rep pay: $42,409 — up significantly, above $39,520 national
- Utah WARN filings, 2026: 1,861 workers — 13 notices statewide; none yet in Cache County
Key takeaways
Metro unemployment undersells softening in professional pay.
Logan's 3.1% jobless rate is the lowest in the state-national comparison set, yet advertised pay for accountants (-significant), financial analysts (-moderate), and software engineers (-moderate) all declined locally even as national pay for those roles held flat or grew. Headline tightness and segment-level cooling are coexisting, a pattern commerce leaders should not conflate.
Consumer-facing wage gains concentrate in service and logistics roles.
Customer service representative pay rose significantly to $42,409 locally, above the national median, while warehouse manager pay jumped to $67,376 — both outpacing comparable national trends. That combination is consistent with sustained local retail and distribution activity even as goods-producing wage growth elsewhere in the state moderates.
Skilled trades show a split story worth tracking.
Construction laborer pay held stable locally while HVAC technician pay fell significantly to $62,400, well under the rising $71,406 national median. Given Utah's statewide construction job growth forecast near 3.2%, a lagging HVAC segment in Cache Valley may point to localized capacity or demand timing factors.
Education and health services remain the state's stabilizing force.
Utah's 8,900 education and health services jobs added over the year is the largest sector gain statewide, and Logan's base of Utah State University and Logan Regional Hospital anchors that pattern locally. Registered nurse and CNA pay held stable in Logan even as national RN pay rose significantly, suggesting local public and institutional employment is absorbing wage pressure that is showing up elsewhere in the country.
Median advertised pay by role — Logan, UT-ID MSA
| Role | 25th percentile | Median advertised pay | 75th percentile | Metro trend | National median |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Retail Sales Associate | $24,093 | $28,600 | $31,300 | Significant decline | $33,340 |
| Retail Cashier | $24,960 | $29,684 | $31,200 | Moderate increase | $31,268 |
| Warehouse/Fulfillment Associate | $31,656 | $36,400 | $39,520 | Stable | $38,480 |
| CDL Truck Driver | $64,308 | $84,245 | $91,000 | Stable | $78,872 |
| Delivery Driver | $29,410 | $32,112 | $33,800 | Moderate decline | $34,826 |
| Construction Laborer | $38,222 | $43,264 | $43,368 | Stable | $40,727 |
| Electrician | $58,640 | $70,802 | $73,359 | Stable | $71,835 |
| Manufacturing Production Worker/Assembler | $33,280 | $38,258 | $40,040 | Stable | $39,520 |
| Customer Service Representative | $30,160 | $42,409 | $43,878 | Significant increase | $39,520 |
| Food Service Worker | $27,844 | $31,200 | $31,342 | Stable | $33,764 |
| Certified Nursing Assistant / Home Health Aide | $31,512 | $36,855 | $40,339 | Stable | $41,600 |
| Administrative Assistant/Office Clerk | $33,278 | $41,600 | $45,923 | Moderate increase | $44,552 |
| HVAC Technician | $62,400 | $62,400 | $63,085 | Significant decline | $71,406 |
| Registered Nurse | $74,290 | $92,050 | $95,017 | Stable | $102,252 |
| Software Engineer | $49,970 | $102,437 | $127,352 | Moderate decline | $154,403 |
| Data Engineer * | $99,201 | $142,382 | $158,888 | Stable | $138,000 |
| Accountant | $51,356 | $56,678 | $57,194 | Significant decline | $72,000 |
| Financial Analyst | $74,251 | $82,585 | $86,346 | Moderate decline | $94,646 |
| HR Generalist/Manager | $40,491 | $75,000 | $84,155 | Significant increase | $74,477 |
| Marketing Specialist | $48,221 | $58,713 | $60,000 | Significant increase | $62,916 |
| Operations Manager * | $70,538 | $81,400 | $94,948 | Moderate decline | $86,294 |
| Elementary/Secondary School Teacher | $30,202 | $47,291 | $57,015 | Moderate increase | $55,908 |
| Account Manager | $61,516 | $81,965 | $87,532 | Stable | $94,009 |
| Warehouse Manager * | $43,753 | $67,376 | $69,421 | Significant increase | $75,000 |
| Business Analyst | $76,257 | $79,298 | $83,245 | Significant decline | $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 | $54,151 | Moderate increase | Significant increase |
| Manufacturing | $47,112 | Stable | Significant increase |
| Retail Trade | $35,995 | Moderate increase | Significant increase |
| Transportation, Warehousing & Utilities | $69,035 | Significant increase | Significant increase |
| Information | $80,223 | Significant increase | Significant increase |
| Financial Activities | $46,488 | Significant increase | Significant increase |
| Professional & Business Services | $52,000 | Significant increase | Significant increase |
| Education & Health Services | $43,243 | Moderate decline | Significant increase |
| Leisure & Hospitality | $29,120 | Stable | Significant increase |
| Government | $64,618 | Stable | Significant increase |
Local market conditions
Logan MSA unemployment held at 3.1% in July 2026, the most recent official county-level reading, well below both Utah's 3.5% and the national 4.1% rate, with a civilian labor force near 83,400 and roughly 81,000 employed. Local advertised pay shows a split pattern — customer service, marketing, and warehouse management job ads, a signal of hiring demand (one ad often covers several openings), rising moderately to significantly while software engineering, accounting, financial analyst, and HVAC technician pay have declined, suggesting cooling demand concentrated in professional and skilled-trades segments even as consumer-facing and logistics roles tighten.
What it means
Divergence between Logan's sub-4% unemployment and softening pay in white-collar and technical categories points to a labor market where overall slack remains limited but employer leverage has shifted unevenly by sector — a signal for commerce leaders weighing expansion timing against talent cost and talent availability together. Public-sector and healthcare-adjacent stability (echoing the state's 8,900-job gain in education and health services) contrasts with retreat in advertised pay for accountants, analysts, and software engineers, which may reflect national information-sector softness reaching into Cache Valley's smaller professional-services base. Current conditions suggest commerce leaders evaluate local investment decisions by sector alongside the headline unemployment rate, since metro-wide tightness masks real cooling in specific white-collar categories.
Looking ahead
Early indicator: November's BLS metro release will bring the first official Logan unemployment reading since July; a move above 3.2% would mark the tightest sustained drift Cache County has seen in over a year and warrants comparison against the 3.5% state rate.
Worth watching: Declining advertised pay across accounting, financial analyst, and business analyst roles locally, against flat-to-rising national pay in the same categories, may indicate Cache Valley's professional-services base is more exposed to national information-sector softness than headline job counts suggest.
Emerging pressure point: HVAC technician pay fell significantly in Logan while national pay rose; watch whether this reflects fewer large commercial/residential projects locally or a temporary dip ahead of the Gardner Institute's 5%+ wage growth forecast for construction trades statewide.
Potential inflection point: Statewide, 13 WARN notices have been filed in 2026 affecting 1,861 workers, concentrated in manufacturing and healthcare; no major Cache County filer has appeared in that count so far, which is itself a local resilience signal worth confirming as Q4 closes.
Sources
- U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (FRED) — Logan MSA unemployment rate at 3.1% in July 2026
- Utah Department of Workforce Services — Logan civilian labor force ~83,400, employed ~81,000
- Utah Department of Workforce Services — Utah education and health services added 8,900 jobs over the year
- Utah WARN Act filings tracker — 13 Utah WARN notices filed in 2026 affecting 1,861 workers
- Bureau of Labor Statistics — National unemployment rate stable at 4.1% in October 2026
- Bureau of Labor Statistics / Utah DWS — Utah statewide unemployment at 3.5% vs national 4.2%/4.1%
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.