Metro Job Market Pulse · General Market Conditions · October 2026
General Market Conditions Labor Market Report: St. Louis, MO-IL MSA — October 2026
St. Louis holds steady as Missouri's job count slips
St. Louis added 3,400 jobs in September while Missouri shed 10,600 statewide and Kansas City lost 4,200, with metro unemployment at 3.9% against the national 4.1%.
Free archive edition. Published by WageScape as sent to subscribers; data as of October 2026.
Key indicators
- St. Louis metro unemployment: 3.9% — vs 4.1% national, August 2026
- St. Louis September job change: +3,400 — vs Kansas City -4,200, Missouri -10,600 statewide
- Metro nonfarm payroll change (12-mo.): -7,200 jobs (-0.5%) — 7 of 11 sectors lost jobs, through March 2026
- Missouri labor force participation: 64.0% — vs 62.4% national, Sept 2026
Key takeaways
St. Louis is outperforming its own state this month.
Missouri lost 10,600 jobs in September while St. Louis added 3,400 and Kansas City lost 4,200 — a metro-level divergence that complicates any single statewide narrative. Local economic development messaging grounded in state data alone risks understating St. Louis's relative position.
Defense and data-center construction are the quiet growth engines.
The Federal Reserve's Eighth District Beige Book attributes recent manufacturing gains specifically to stronger demand from national defense programs and data center and energy construction. This concentration means regional economic health is increasingly tied to a narrower set of federal and infrastructure-linked contracts.
Real wages are falling even where nominal pay looks healthy.
Median weekly earnings rose 1.5% nationally against 3.5% CPI inflation in the same period, and Missouri's wage gains show a similar pattern of lagging purchasing power. Consumer spending capacity across the metro's retail and hospitality base — 14.9% and 11.3% of metro employment, respectively — is likely under more strain than headline wage figures suggest.
Small-business hesitation may be the metro's leading indicator.
Beige Book contacts describe stagnant or shrinking small-business employment even as larger financial services firms report staffing gains in select divisions. That bifurcation suggests the health of St. Louis's broader business climate depends on which segment of the economy a given indicator is drawn from.
Median advertised pay by role — St. Louis, MO-IL MSA
| Role | 25th percentile | Median advertised pay | 75th percentile | Metro trend | National median |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Retail Sales Associate | $28,562 | $33,280 | $35,360 | Stable | $33,340 |
| Retail Cashier | $27,909 | $32,240 | $33,280 | Stable | $31,268 |
| Warehouse/Fulfillment Associate | $32,064 | $37,590 | $41,600 | Stable | $38,480 |
| CDL Truck Driver | $57,200 | $75,400 | $85,000 | Stable | $78,872 |
| Delivery Driver | $29,386 | $33,415 | $41,600 | Moderate decline | $34,826 |
| Construction Laborer | $34,183 | $39,520 | $43,680 | Moderate decline | $40,727 |
| Electrician | $59,280 | $72,046 | $78,000 | Moderate increase | $71,835 |
| Manufacturing Production Worker/Assembler | $34,018 | $39,520 | $41,600 | Stable | $39,520 |
| Customer Service Representative | $31,720 | $38,628 | $42,613 | Moderate increase | $39,520 |
| Food Service Worker | $30,099 | $33,500 | $36,608 | Stable | $33,764 |
| Certified Nursing Assistant / Home Health Aide | $35,121 | $41,600 | $43,904 | Moderate increase | $41,600 |
| Administrative Assistant/Office Clerk | $35,416 | $42,640 | $46,993 | Stable | $44,552 |
| HVAC Technician | $57,096 | $75,717 | $81,120 | Moderate increase | $71,406 |
| Registered Nurse | $93,707 | $109,850 | $119,780 | Significant increase | $102,252 |
| Software Engineer | $104,872 | $134,290 | $149,573 | Stable | $154,403 |
| Data Engineer | $93,613 | $123,979 | $141,629 | Moderate decline | $138,000 |
| Accountant | $59,574 | $68,998 | $76,009 | Stable | $72,000 |
| Financial Analyst | $72,901 | $86,680 | $96,895 | Moderate decline | $94,646 |
| HR Generalist/Manager | $58,077 | $72,814 | $85,675 | Moderate increase | $74,477 |
| Marketing Specialist | $51,014 | $63,007 | $68,640 | Moderate increase | $62,916 |
| Operations Manager | $71,389 | $71,842 | $85,000 | Stable | $86,294 |
| Elementary/Secondary School Teacher | $34,320 | $47,268 | $53,554 | Moderate increase | $55,908 |
| Account Manager | $62,500 | $91,299 | $112,478 | Moderate increase | $94,009 |
| Warehouse Manager | $64,827 | $75,000 | $75,000 | Stable | $75,000 |
| Business Analyst | $80,201 | $97,314 | $105,119 | Stable | $98,302 |
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 | $67,957 | Moderate increase | Significant increase |
| Manufacturing | $101,464 | Moderate increase | Significant increase |
| Retail Trade | $36,972 | Moderate increase | Stable |
| Transportation, Warehousing & Utilities | $58,500 | Moderate increase | Moderate increase |
| Information | $85,636 | Significant increase | Moderate increase |
| Financial Activities | $88,245 | Significant increase | Significant increase |
| Professional & Business Services | $80,000 | Moderate increase | Significant increase |
| Education & Health Services | $61,308 | Stable | Significant increase |
| Leisure & Hospitality | $33,862 | Stable | Stable |
| Government | $64,575 | Moderate increase | Significant decline |
Local market conditions
St. Louis metro unemployment held at 3.9% in August, below the national 4.1% rate, even as nonfarm payrolls fell 7,200 jobs (-0.5%) over the twelve months ending in March, with seven of eleven sectors recording losses. Statewide, Missouri shed 10,600 jobs in September while St. Louis itself added 3,400 — a divergence from Kansas City's 4,200 loss — suggesting the metro's labor market is absorbing softness elsewhere in the state better than its peers.
What it means
Metro-level resilience amid statewide softness suggests St. Louis's economic base — anchored by healthcare, wholesale/retail trade, and defense-linked manufacturing demand flagged in the Fed's October Beige Book — is cushioning the region from broader Missouri contraction. Commerce leaders evaluating expansion timing should weigh this local divergence against the Federal Reserve's note that small-business employment growth has stagnated, with some firms already reducing headcount even as financial services report gains in select divisions. Current conditions suggest monitoring sector-specific momentum, particularly defense and data-center construction, before drawing metro-wide conclusions from state headlines.
Looking ahead
Potential inflection point: St. Louis's September gain of 3,400 jobs ran counter to Missouri's statewide loss of 10,600 — watch October data to see whether the metro sustains this divergence or converges with the state's softer trend.
Worth watching: Defense and data-center construction are cited as the primary drivers of recent Eighth District manufacturing gains; a pullback in federal contracting or data-center investment would remove a key local growth pillar.
Emerging pressure point: Small-business employment has stagnated per Fed contacts, with some firms cutting staff even as unemployment stays low — a signal that local business confidence may be softer than aggregate metro numbers imply.
Early indicator: Missouri's labor force participation rate of 64%, well above the national 62.4%, has held despite September's job losses; a decline here would be an early sign that discouraged-worker dynamics are reaching St. Louis.
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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