Metro Job Market Pulse · General Market Conditions · September 2026
General Market Conditions Labor Market Report: PA NONMETROPOLITAN AREA — September 2026
Rural PA's labor market splits along county and sector lines.
Wayne County unemployment sits at 3.6% while Scranton-Wilkes-Barre runs 4.7%, and statewide job growth of 36,000 positions is concentrated almost entirely in health care and hospitality rather than the construction and government sectors that anchor many nonmetro county economies.
Free archive edition. Published by WageScape as sent to subscribers; data as of September 2026.
Key indicators
- Wayne County unemployment: 3.6% — vs 4.7% Scranton-Wilkes-Barre, same month
- PA statewide job growth since Aug 2025: 36,000 jobs — concentrated in health/education, leisure/hospitality
- PA government/construction job losses: -13,900 jobs — since August 2025, statewide
- PA statewide unemployment rate: 4.1% — up from 3.7% in August; 29th month at/below US rate
Key takeaways
Nonmetro PA is not one labor market — it is several.
Wayne County's 3.6% unemployment sits well below Scranton-Wilkes-Barre's 4.7%, a gap wide enough that statewide averages mask real divergence in county-level business conditions. Commerce leaders should treat county-level data, not statewide figures, as the relevant baseline for assessing local momentum.
Health care and leisure are carrying statewide job growth, not rural goods sectors.
The 36,000 jobs Pennsylvania added since August 2025 are concentrated in health/education and hospitality, sectors less dominant in many rural counties than construction, government, and logistics — all of which lost ground statewide. A county's industry mix, more than its headline unemployment rate, now determines whether it's riding the growth or missing it.
Freight and skilled trades pay is rising while lower-wage logistics roles soften.
Local CDL driver pay rose to $83,590 (up moderately) even as warehouse/fulfillment advertised pay fell to $36,400, suggesting demand is bifurcating toward licensed, scarce skill sets rather than broad-based logistics sector strength. This divergence is a more reliable read on sector health than aggregate warehousing employment counts alone.
Government and construction softness is a structural watch item, not noise.
Both sectors remain below year-ago employment levels statewide, and nonmetro counties typically carry a higher public-sector employment share than metro Pennsylvania. Public-sector stability — a core gauge of local economic resilience in rural counties — bears closer tracking than the topline unemployment rate suggests.
Median advertised pay by role — PA NONMETROPOLITAN AREA
| Role | 25th percentile | Median advertised pay | 75th percentile | Metro trend | National median |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Retail Sales Associate | $22,360 | $27,386 | $31,273 | Moderate decline | $33,325 |
| Retail Cashier | $24,395 | $28,547 | $30,529 | Stable | $31,200 |
| Warehouse/Fulfillment Associate | $31,251 | $36,400 | $40,564 | Moderate decline | $38,000 |
| CDL Truck Driver | $60,096 | $83,590 | $94,000 | Moderate increase | $78,000 |
| Delivery Driver | $29,161 | $32,798 | $35,000 | Moderate decline | $34,344 |
| Construction Laborer | $31,741 | $37,440 | $41,080 | Stable | $40,560 |
| Electrician | $57,011 | $67,402 | $70,566 | Significant increase | $71,404 |
| Manufacturing Production Worker/Assembler | $33,260 | $37,090 | $39,760 | Moderate decline | $39,520 |
| Customer Service Representative | $30,584 | $37,435 | $41,041 | Stable | $39,520 |
| Food Service Worker | $27,513 | $29,282 | $30,833 | Moderate decline | $33,756 |
| Certified Nursing Assistant / Home Health Aide | $33,143 | $41,740 | $45,760 | Stable | $41,106 |
| Administrative Assistant/Office Clerk | $31,501 | $38,404 | $41,600 | Stable | $43,680 |
| HVAC Technician | $56,160 | $65,520 | $72,348 | Significant increase | $70,720 |
| Registered Nurse | $84,078 | $99,133 | $108,396 | Significant increase | $102,581 |
| Software Engineer | $104,755 | $137,679 | $153,098 | Moderate decline | $153,652 |
| Data Engineer | $99,151 | $123,472 | $142,585 | Moderate decline | $139,500 |
| Accountant | $56,717 | $66,167 | $73,042 | Stable | $72,182 |
| Financial Analyst | $69,632 | $87,820 | $97,501 | Stable | $94,782 |
| HR Generalist/Manager | $53,163 | $67,850 | $80,000 | Stable | $75,000 |
| Marketing Specialist | $49,662 | $60,000 | $67,826 | Moderate increase | $62,354 |
| Operations Manager | $62,000 | $72,381 | $74,524 | Moderate decline | $85,216 |
| Elementary/Secondary School Teacher | $32,985 | $52,080 | $58,738 | Significant increase | $56,731 |
| Account Manager | $57,623 | $81,460 | $106,222 | Stable | $92,749 |
| Warehouse Manager | $70,581 | $72,500 | $72,500 | Moderate increase | $75,000 |
| Business Analyst | $79,158 | $91,584 | $105,000 | Moderate decline | $98,279 |
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 | $57,200 | Moderate increase | Significant decline |
| Manufacturing | $86,627 | Moderate increase | Significant decline |
| Retail Trade | $34,683 | Stable | Significant decline |
| Transportation, Warehousing & Utilities | $47,636 | Stable | Significant decline |
| Information | $85,819 | Moderate decline | Significant decline |
| Financial Activities | $72,255 | Significant decline | Significant decline |
| Professional & Business Services | $56,160 | Stable | Significant decline |
| Education & Health Services | $52,500 | Stable | Significant decline |
| Leisure & Hospitality | $31,200 | Moderate decline | Significant decline |
| Government | $67,456 | Significant increase | Significant decline |
Local market conditions
Pennsylvania's nonmetropolitan counties show a wider gap between tighter rural labor markets (Wayne County at 3.6% unemployment in July) and softer micro-areas like Scranton-Wilkes-Barre at 4.7%, with statewide job growth concentrated almost entirely in health care and leisure/hospitality rather than the goods-producing and public-sector work that anchors many rural county economies. Construction and government employment across Pennsylvania remain below year-ago levels, a pattern likely to weigh more heavily on nonmetro counties where those two sectors make up a larger share of total payrolls than in urban metros.
What it means
Uneven sector performance across the rural "T" counties suggests local business climate conditions depend heavily on which supersectors dominate a given county's base — commerce leaders in counties anchored by construction, logistics or government may be watching a cooling climate while those with strong health/education presence see more resilient activity. Advertised pay softness in warehouse/fulfillment ($36,400, down moderately) and manufacturing production roles ($37,090, down moderately) locally, against stable-to-rising CDL driver pay ($83,590, up moderately), points to continued strength in freight/logistics demand even as broader goods-producing employment softens. Current conditions suggest economic development leaders track which supersectors are expanding versus contracting at the county level before characterizing the regional outlook as uniformly strong or weak.
Looking ahead
Data gap to monitor: No county-specific or nonmetro-area BLS release has yet been issued for September; the most current benchmark remains July data published September 1. Watch for the October release of August/September county figures to confirm whether Wayne County's tightness and Scranton-Wilkes-Barre's softness persisted.
Emerging pressure point: Statewide, government, construction, trade/transportation and information lost 13,900 jobs combined since August 2025 — sectors overrepresented in rural county payrolls relative to Philadelphia or Pittsburgh. A continuation would show up first in nonmetro county unemployment ticking upward relative to the state average.
Policy to track, not predict: Pennsylvania's House passed H.B. 2189 to raise the state's $7.25 minimum wage, with the Senate yet to act. Rural counties with lower-wage service and retail bases would feel a binding minimum wage increase more acutely than high-cost metro counties, making this a live fiscal and labor-cost variable for commerce leaders to track regardless of outcome.
Early indicator: Labor force dropouts statewide rose from roughly 8,000 in early 2025 to over 15,000 by Q3 2025. If that pattern extends into nonmetro counties, a declining labor force participation rate — not rising unemployment — may be the clearer early signal of economic softening in rural labor markets.
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.