Metro Job Market Pulse · General Market Conditions · October 2026
General Market Conditions Labor Market Report: Ogden-Clearfield, UT MSA — October 2026
Ogden job growth stabilizes after a quiet 2025 slide.
Weber County employment rebounded with back-to-back 1,000-job gains in July and August after averaging 250 monthly job losses through 2025, even as Utah's average weekly wage fell 2.6% year-over-year.
Free archive edition. Published by WageScape as sent to subscribers; data as of October 2026.
Key indicators
- Ogden-Clearfield unemployment rate: 3.5% — vs 4.1% national rate, ranked 32nd-lowest of 108 metros
- Metro job growth, July-Aug 2026: +1,000/mo — vs -250/mo average monthly loss across 2025
- Utah average weekly wage: -2.6% YoY — despite state adding 25,200 jobs over same period
- Utah WARN filings, 2026: 13 notices / 1,861 workers — vs 3,860 notices / 340,316 workers nationally
Key takeaways
Job growth has cooled, but not reversed.
Ogden-Clearfield averaged a monthly loss of 250 jobs through 2025 before posting back-to-back 1,000-job gains in July and August 2026. That pattern is consistent with a metro economy stabilizing after a slowdown, a distinction that matters for anyone reading the headline unemployment rate as the full story.
Wage gains are concentrated in a narrow set of trades.
HVAC technicians and food service workers both show significant local pay increases, while retail, warehouse, and manufacturing production roles are flat or declining. That pattern suggests tight local supply in specific skilled and frontline categories, a nuance that matters for reading consumer spending power broadly.
Statewide wages are falling even as job counts rise.
Utah's average weekly wage dropped 2.6% year-over-year even as the state added 25,200 jobs, a divergence that may suggest job growth is concentrated in lower-wage categories or hours are compressing. Local economists should watch whether Ogden-Clearfield's healthcare and manufacturing wage strength offsets this statewide softening or merely tracks it.
Construction pay is pulling in opposite directions locally and nationally.
Metro construction laborer pay fell significantly even as the national figure rose moderately, a split worth flagging given the Gardner Institute's 3.2% statewide construction job growth forecast. That divergence may reflect local labor supply conditions distinct from the state's broader construction wage story.
Median advertised pay by role — Ogden-Clearfield, UT MSA
| Role | 25th percentile | Median advertised pay | 75th percentile | Metro trend | National median |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Retail Sales Associate | $25,932 | $31,776 | $35,204 | Stable | $33,340 |
| Retail Cashier | $26,889 | $30,160 | $32,240 | Stable | $31,268 |
| Warehouse/Fulfillment Associate | $32,116 | $36,520 | $39,520 | Moderate increase | $38,480 |
| CDL Truck Driver | $59,097 | $78,000 | $87,100 | Stable | $78,872 |
| Delivery Driver | $30,604 | $33,961 | $38,925 | Stable | $34,826 |
| Construction Laborer | $33,895 | $38,480 | $41,860 | Significant decline | $40,727 |
| Electrician | $59,291 | $72,383 | $79,040 | Stable | $71,835 |
| Manufacturing Production Worker/Assembler | $32,854 | $38,927 | $42,640 | Moderate decline | $39,520 |
| Customer Service Representative | $33,280 | $37,440 | $40,449 | Stable | $39,520 |
| Food Service Worker | $31,200 | $36,837 | $39,141 | Significant increase | $33,764 |
| Certified Nursing Assistant / Home Health Aide | $34,598 | $39,520 | $42,452 | Stable | $41,600 |
| Administrative Assistant/Office Clerk | $35,148 | $43,086 | $48,880 | Moderate increase | $44,552 |
| HVAC Technician | $64,300 | $78,474 | $92,418 | Significant increase | $71,406 |
| Registered Nurse | $79,805 | $92,050 | $100,986 | Stable | $102,252 |
| Software Engineer | $115,300 | $149,179 | $164,523 | Moderate increase | $154,403 |
| Data Engineer | $98,782 | $133,078 | $147,447 | Moderate increase | $138,000 |
| Accountant | $57,501 | $70,000 | $78,529 | Moderate increase | $72,000 |
| Financial Analyst | $69,295 | $94,927 | $102,577 | Significant increase | $94,646 |
| HR Generalist/Manager | $55,582 | $68,673 | $75,399 | Stable | $74,477 |
| Marketing Specialist | $46,629 | $63,440 | $76,884 | Significant increase | $62,916 |
| Operations Manager | $70,479 | $83,270 | $95,428 | Stable | $86,294 |
| Elementary/Secondary School Teacher | $31,200 | $49,261 | $55,232 | Stable | $55,908 |
| Account Manager | $66,478 | $103,456 | $125,000 | Significant increase | $94,009 |
| Warehouse Manager * | $43,753 | $67,376 | $69,421 | Significant increase | $75,000 |
| Business Analyst | $76,494 | $97,981 | $106,874 | Moderate increase | $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 | $80,040 | Significant increase | Significant increase |
| Manufacturing | $116,700 | Moderate increase | Significant increase |
| Retail Trade | $37,215 | Moderate increase | Significant increase |
| Transportation, Warehousing & Utilities | $65,520 | Significant increase | Significant increase |
| Information | $140,120 | Significant increase | Significant increase |
| Financial Activities | $87,931 | Significant increase | Significant increase |
| Professional & Business Services | $77,592 | Significant increase | Significant increase |
| Education & Health Services | $58,327 | Significant increase | Significant increase |
| Leisure & Hospitality | $32,240 | Stable | Significant increase |
| Government | $66,286 | Stable | Significant increase |
Local market conditions
Ogden-Clearfield's unemployment rate held at 3.5% through mid-2026, with Weber County nonfarm employment reaching 124,719 in July, but the pace of job creation has thinned sharply — from roughly 297 new jobs per month over the past five years to an average monthly loss of 250 jobs across 2025, before stabilizing with 1,000-job gains in both July and August. Wage data shows a split economy: manufacturing ($1,453 average weekly wage) and healthcare ($1,108) anchor the metro's pay structure, while statewide average weekly wages actually fell 2.6% year-over-year even as education and health services led job creation with 8,900 new positions.
What it means
Slower net job creation alongside continued sector-level hiring demand in healthcare, construction, and manufacturing points to an economy that is rotating, a distinction that matters for how commerce leaders read expansion signals and how economists interpret workforce participation data. Advertised pay for HVAC technicians (up significantly, $78,474 metro median) and food service workers (up significantly, $36,837) suggests localized wage pressure concentrated in a handful of trades, which has different implications for consumer spending capacity than an economy-wide wage surge. Commerce leaders evaluating expansion timing should weigh the metro's still-low 3.5% unemployment rate against the deceleration in net job additions — conditions suggest a market that can support targeted growth in healthcare and skilled trades without necessarily indicating broad-based economic acceleration.
Looking ahead
Worth watching: August and July's 1,000-job monthly gains need a third consecutive month to confirm lasting stabilization instead of a short rebound from 2025's losses. Commerce leaders weighing expansion timing should treat September-October data as the real test.
Emerging pressure point: Statewide average weekly wages fell 2.6% year-over-year even as Utah added jobs broadly — a divergence that, if it persists at the metro level, would complicate the picture for household spending capacity across Weber, Davis, and Morgan counties.
Early indicator: Utah's labor force participation is rebalancing toward older workers (55+) while prime-age and youth participation declines, per state economist Ben Crabb. Watch whether this shift shows up in Ogden-area participation data, with implications for workforce pipeline depth that economic development officials track closely.
Potential inflection point: National WARN filings remain elevated (3,860 notices, 340,316 workers through late October) while Utah's filings stay localized — 13 notices, 1,861 workers, led by Tyson Fresh Meats. A meaningful uptick in Weber or Davis county filings would signal the national cooling has reached Ogden directly.
Sources
- Utah Department of Workforce Services — Weber County nonfarm employment at 124,719 in July 2026
- Bureau of Labor Statistics — Metro averaged 250 monthly job losses in 2025, gained 1,000 jobs in July and August 2026
- USA Facts / Bureau of Labor Statistics — Utah average weekly wage fell 2.6% year-over-year
- USA Facts / Bureau of Labor Statistics — Ogden-Clearfield unemployment ranked 32nd-lowest among 108 large metros
- Utah WARN Act tracker — 13 WARN notices filed in Utah in 2026 affecting 1,861 workers
- Utah Department of Workforce Services — Labor force participation rebalancing toward older workers in Utah
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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