Sources & References
Metro Job Market Pulse · Ames, IA 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 nonfarm payrolls added 29,000 jobs in September, below 45,000 average
Bureau of Labor Statistics — National employment situation report
This Month's Takeaways
Iowa trade/transportation sector shed 5,200 jobs annually
Iowa Workforce Development — Iowa sector-level employment change, August 2026
Healthcare and social assistance added 5,700 jobs annually in Iowa
Iowa Workforce Development — Iowa sector employment trends report
Local Economic Conditions
Ames MSA unemployment rate near 2.5%-2.8%
Bureau of Labor Statistics / Iowa Workforce Development — Ames MSA Economy at a Glance, local unemployment data
Government is Ames' largest supersector at 13,660 positions
Bureau of Labor Statistics — Ames MSA industry employment breakdown
Looking Ahead
Iowa WARN-affected workers down 58% year over year
WARNact.io / Iowa Workforce Development — Iowa WARN Act notice tracking, 2026
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