Labor Market Pulse · Human Resources · September 2026
Human Resources Labor Market Report: Scranton--Wilkes-Barre, PA MSA — September 2026
Scranton hiring cools while payroll and recruiting pay diverge from national trend.
Luzerne County unemployment sits at 5.0% against the metro's 4.7%, while local Payroll Specialist pay at $65,000 now outpaces the $59,855 national median even as Recruiter pay trails national rates by over $12,000.
Free archive edition. Published by WageScape as sent to subscribers; data as of September 2026.
Key indicators
- Metro unemployment rate: 4.7% — Scranton–Wilkes-Barre MSA, seasonally adjusted, July 2026
- Luzerne County unemployment: 5.0% — Above metro average, September 2026
- National hires rate: 3.2% — Lowest outside pandemic/2009-11 recovery, July 2026
- PA sector job losses: 13,900 jobs — Government, construction, trade, info sectors since Aug 2025
Key takeaways
Quiet quits mean a thinner, not safer, candidate pool.
National hires rate at 3.2% — the lowest outside pandemic or 2009-2011 recovery — tracks with PA's slowing quit rate, and Luzerne County's 5.0% unemployment suggests local supply isn't loosening fast enough to offset it. Recruiting teams may need longer lead times for hard-to-fill roles even as overall hiring volume drops.
Recruiter pay is up locally while national pay runs well ahead.
Metro Recruiter advertised pay rose to $55,490, a moderate increase, but still trails the $68,167 national median by over $12,000. That gap may reflect the metro's lower cost structure, but it also signals risk if recruiting talent benchmarks against remote-eligible national postings.
Payroll Specialist pay jump outpaces the national trend.
Metro Payroll Specialist advertised pay climbed significantly to $65,000, now exceeding the $59,855 national median — an unusual local premium. This is consistent with compliance complexity (PA CROWN Act, Pittsburgh sick leave mandates) pushing employers to pay up for payroll expertise that can navigate multi-jurisdiction rules.
HR Coordinator pay is softening against a rising national trend.
Metro HR Coordinator advertised pay fell moderately to $48,608 while the national median rose to $50,000, a divergence worth watching. Falling entry-level HR pay locally may reflect softer administrative hiring demand even as compliance-heavy roles like payroll command more.
Median advertised pay by role — Scranton--Wilkes-Barre, PA MSA
| Role | 25th percentile | Median advertised pay | 75th percentile | Metro trend | National median |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Compensation Analyst * | $70,868 | $95,484 | $111,190 | Stable | $101,727 |
| HR Business Partner | $56,359 | $76,854 | $90,922 | Significant increase | $83,766 |
| Benefits Manager * | $80,000 | $116,237 | $124,565 | Moderate increase | $117,888 |
| HRIS Analyst * | $80,000 | $97,917 | $108,762 | Moderate increase | $97,555 |
| HR Coordinator | $41,600 | $48,608 | $50,219 | Moderate decline | $50,000 |
| Recruiter | $44,452 | $55,490 | $59,010 | Moderate increase | $68,167 |
| Payroll Specialist | $49,871 | $65,000 | $71,785 | Significant increase | $59,855 |
* 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
Local market conditions
Scranton–Wilkes-Barre's labor market is holding at 4.7% seasonally adjusted unemployment as of the most recent metro reading, with Luzerne County running hotter at 5.0% — a gap that reflects the county's heavier exposure to warehousing and distribution churn tied to Amazon and Kane Is Able. Statewide hiring and quit rates have both cooled, consistent with national hires-rate data falling to 3.2% in July, meaning fewer workers are leaving jobs voluntarily and fewer employers are competing aggressively to backfill them.
What it means
Lower voluntary turnover reduces urgency around defensive counteroffers, but it also means external candidate pools are thinner and slower to refresh — a dynamic that rewards employers who can source passively rather than wait for applicants. With Pennsylvania's information and government sectors shedding jobs while healthcare and logistics stay stable locally, workforce planning should weight sourcing toward adjacent sectors rather than assuming broad-based candidate surplus. Consider reviewing which roles in your organization rely on external hiring versus internal mobility, since a quieter quit market favors building internal pipelines over waiting for market churn to deliver talent.
Looking ahead
Worth watching: Luzerne County's unemployment sitting a half-point above the metro average warrants tracking monthly — if the gap widens, it may signal distribution-sector softening ahead of other industries feeling it.
Emerging pressure point: Pennsylvania information-sector job losses (part of a 13,900-job decline across government, construction, trade, and information) could push displaced tech and admin workers into the Scranton candidate pool; watch whether local postings for coordinator-level and tech-adjacent roles see application volume increase.
Potential inflection point: National job postings index turned positive for the first time in nearly four years (103.5 mid-September), a signal worth tracking for whether it translates into metro-level posting growth or remains concentrated in national remote-eligible roles.
Expected: Health & Education and Leisure Hospitality drove nearly all of Pennsylvania's job growth over the past year; expect continued hiring demand concentration in Scranton's hospital and healthcare systems like Geisinger relative to flatter demand elsewhere.
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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