Baltimore holds steady while Maryland's job engine stalls.
3.9%
Baltimore metro unemployment
vs 4.1% Maryland, 4.2% national
63.7%
Maryland labor force participation
10-year low, down from 63.8% in July
-8,200 jobs
Maryland August payroll change
Reverses July's +10,200 gain
-5,500 jobs
Maryland 12-month net job change
Despite +29,800 YTD gain through July
This Month's Takeaways
01
Baltimore is outperforming Maryland, but the gap may be narrowing.
Metro unemployment near 3.9% beats the state's 4.1% and the national 4.2%, yet Maryland's 8,200-job August loss and a 12-month net loss of 5,500 jobs statewide suggest regional resilience is not guaranteed to hold if contractor-driven weakness spreads from Prince George's and Montgomery counties toward the Baltimore basin.
02
Federal contracting losses are the story beneath the story.
Professional, scientific and technical services — the category covering federal contractors — has shed 11,500 jobs statewide since January 2025, the largest structural decline of any sector. Baltimore's own concentration of federal-adjacent employers (Social Security Administration, NSA-area contractors, defense-related firms) makes this a watch item even where local job counts still look stable.
03
Wage gains in skilled trades outpace white-collar and retail roles locally.
Advertised pay for HVAC technicians and electricians is up significantly in the metro, consistent with national sector divergence favoring hands-on construction and skilled trades over office-based work. That pattern tracks continued building activity and infrastructure spending locally, a useful signal for development-focused commerce leaders assessing where private investment is concentrating.
04
Labor force participation, not job counts, is the number to watch.
Maryland's participation rate fell to a 10-year low of 63.7% in August, a trend that constrains how much local businesses can expand without wage pressure even if job openings hold steady. A shrinking available workforce matters more to long-run local growth capacity than any single month's payroll count.
Local Economic Conditions
Baltimore's metro unemployment rate held near 3.9% as of the most recently available BLS data, outperforming the 4.1% statewide and 4.2% national figures even as Maryland's broader labor market whipsawed — gaining 10,200 jobs in July before losing 8,200 in August, with professional and technical services still bleeding positions tied to federal contracting pullback. Local momentum appears to rest on health care and government payrolls, a cushion the state-level contractor losses and a 12-month statewide decline of 5,500 net jobs suggest is narrower than headline numbers imply.
Open Threads in the Data
Flat-to-positive job counts in Baltimore proper, against a backdrop of statewide contractor losses and a 10-year-low Maryland labor force participation rate of 63.7%, point to an economy holding steady on paper while its underlying growth capacity — available workers and durable private-sector demand — erodes. Commerce leaders weighing expansion or investment timing should treat metro-level stability as provisional rather than a green light, since county-level data show employment declined in seven of Maryland's eight largest counties over the past year. Consider cross-referencing any local growth plan against county-specific labor force trends rather than metro or state topline figures alone.
Advertised Pay Indicators · WageScape Benchmark 25 Jobs
Job postings data for the Baltimore-Towson, MD MSA metro — median advertised pay, its recent trend, and the number of active postings behind each figure. Jobs are grouped for readability and are not the same as the 10 sector classifications on the next page. For additional job detail contact WageScape.
Retail Trade
| Retail Sales Associate |
$35,360 |
→ Stable |
11,795 |
| Retail Cashier |
$33,982 |
→ Stable |
4,279 |
Transportation & Warehousing
| Warehouse/Fulfillment Associate |
$39,520 |
→ Stable |
3,231 |
| CDL Truck Driver |
$82,279 |
↑ Moderate increase |
14,434 |
| Delivery Driver |
$36,338 |
→ Stable |
9,655 |
| Warehouse Manager |
$85,092 |
↓ Significant decline |
10 |
Construction
| Construction Laborer |
$41,860 |
→ Stable |
620 |
Construction/Skilled Trades
| Electrician |
$75,915 |
↑ Moderate increase |
2,213 |
| HVAC Technician |
$80,000 |
↑ Significant increase |
809 |
Manufacturing
| Manufacturing Production Worker/Assembler |
$43,680 |
→ Stable |
1,339 |
Cross-Sector
| Customer Service Representative |
$39,662 |
→ Stable |
3,447 |
| Operations Manager |
$95,023 |
↓ Significant decline |
18 |
Leisure & Hospitality
| Food Service Worker |
$34,840 |
→ Stable |
639 |
Healthcare
| Certified Nursing Assistant / Home Health Aide |
$41,600 |
↑ Moderate increase |
6,800 |
| Registered Nurse |
$98,800 |
↑ Significant increase |
30,706 |
Admin/Office Support
| Administrative Assistant/Office Clerk |
$46,800 |
→ Stable |
4,000 |
Information/Technology
| Software Engineer |
$153,703 |
→ Stable |
24,861 |
| Data Engineer |
$145,047 |
↓ Moderate decline |
2,003 |
Professional & Business Services
| Accountant |
$79,505 |
→ Stable |
2,737 |
| HR Generalist/Manager |
$79,552 |
↑ Moderate increase |
817 |
| Marketing Specialist |
$65,000 |
↓ Moderate decline |
363 |
| Business Analyst |
$110,080 |
↑ Moderate increase |
1,587 |
Finance & Insurance
| Financial Analyst |
$95,348 |
↑ Moderate increase |
1,455 |
Government/Education
| Elementary/Secondary School Teacher |
$46,800 |
→ Stable |
11,378 |
Cross-Sector Sales
| Account Manager |
$92,307 |
↑ Moderate increase |
2,777 |
Industry Snapshot · Baltimore-Towson, MD MSA
Advertised pay and job-posting trends across the whole metro economy, rolled up by employer industry — not just the bellwether roles above.
| Sector |
Median Pay Change |
Job Postings Change |
| Construction |
→ −0.2% |
↑ +21.7% |
| Manufacturing |
↑ +6.5% |
↑ +34.2% |
| Retail Trade |
→ +2.2% |
↑ +6.8% |
| Transportation, Warehousing & Utilities |
→ −2.1% |
↑ +16.6% |
| Information |
↑ +9.2% |
↑ +37.4% |
| Financial Activities |
→ +1.4% |
↑ +28.6% |
| Professional & Business Services |
↑ +16.6% |
↑ +29.5% |
| Education & Health Services |
↑ +19.1% |
↑ +14.7% |
| Leisure & Hospitality |
→ −0.2% |
↑ +21.9% |
| Government |
↑ +14.5% |
↓ −53.5% |
Looking Ahead · Next 30–60 Days
Potential inflection point
Watch whether Maryland's August job losses (-8,200) prove a one-month blip or the start of a trend echoing the state's weaker 12-month trajectory. A second consecutive monthly decline would undercut the narrative of Baltimore-area resilience.
Emerging pressure point
Federal contractor employment losses, concentrated in Prince George's and Montgomery counties, have not yet fully shown up in Baltimore-specific data. Commerce leaders should track whether displaced contracting talent or firm relocations begin appearing in Baltimore-area commercial real estate and business registration activity.
Worth watching
The $18/hour minimum wage for MAA contract workers at BWI, effective this fall, is a concrete policy data point worth tracking for its effect on airport-adjacent logistics and hospitality wage floors in Anne Arundel County.
Early indicator
National wage growth has slowed to 3.0% annually against 3.4% inflation — the first real-wage gap in two years. If that dynamic reaches Baltimore's wage data in coming months, it would signal softening local consumer purchasing power even amid stable employment counts.
Sources & Methodology
Pay and hiring data provided by WageScape. See every source cited in this report, with links →
Advertised pay reflects the pay ranges employers publish in active job postings in this metro, not survey or payroll data. Pay trends compare the current period with the prior period for the same metro and role. Sector figures group postings by the employer's industry classification; sectors with limited classified postings are marked as such rather than estimated. This briefing is independent of, and complements, official statistics from the BLS and state labor market information offices.
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