Sources & References
Metro Job Market Pulse · Allentown-Bethlehem-Easton, PA-NJ MSA · October 2026
Every advertised-pay, job-posting and industry figure in this briefing comes from WageScape's own database of active job postings. The sources below back the external facts cited in the written analysis.
Sources cited in this report
Key Indicators
National wage growth at 3.0% annual vs 3.4% inflation
Bureau of Labor Statistics / Indeed Hiring Lab — September 2026 wage and inflation comparison
This Month's Takeaways
PA government, construction, trade/transportation, info sectors lost 13,900 jobs since Aug 2025
Keystone Research Center — Analysis of PA DLI monthly employment data
Local Economic Conditions
Allentown-Bethlehem-Easton MSA unemployment rate at 4.1% in July 2026
Pennsylvania Department of Labor & Industry — Monthly MSA employment situation release
~74,000 Lehigh Valley workers in manufacturing/logistics, up 70.9% since 2010
Lehigh Valley Economic Development Corporation — Regional sector employment analysis, January 2026
Looking Ahead
National September payroll gain of 29,000, well below 12-month average
Bureau of Labor Statistics — September 2026 employment situation report
PA House passed H.B. 2189 minimum wage increase; Senate inaction
Pennsylvania House of Representatives — Legislative action on minimum wage bill
How the numbers are calculated
- Advertised pay is the median of the pay ranges employers publish in active job postings in this metro. It is not survey or payroll data.
- Percent changes compare the latest six full months with the six months before that, for the same metro and sector.
- Sectors group postings by the employer's industry (NAICS) classification into ten sectors. Where a metro has too few postings in a sector, the state figure is used instead.
- Role pay trends use the same comparison windows. "Stable" means a change of less than 3%; "moderate" 3–10%; "significant" more than 10%.
Official data for comparison