Sources & References
Metro Job Market Pulse · Barnstable Town, MA 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 average hourly earnings grew 3.0% annually versus 3.4% inflation
Bureau of Labor Statistics — September 2026 wage and CPI data
This Month's Takeaways
Massachusetts professional, scientific and technical services employment fell 5.8% in 2026
Massachusetts Executive Office of Labor and Workforce Development — Sector employment data, 2026
Local Economic Conditions
Barnstable County unemployment at 5.50%, down from 5.80% prior month, up from 4.30% year-over-year
Massachusetts Executive Office of Labor and Workforce Development — County-level unemployment release, August 2026
Major Barnstable-area employers include Cape Cod Healthcare, Woods Hole Oceanographic, Cape Cod Community College
Massachusetts Executive Office of Labor and Workforce Development — Regional employer data
Looking Ahead
September 2026 county unemployment data releases October 20, 2026
Massachusetts Executive Office of Labor and Workforce Development — Scheduled data release date
Massachusetts WARN notices down 11% year over year, 72 notices affecting 7,343 workers
Massachusetts Executive Office of Labor and Workforce Development — 2026 WARN Act notice tracking
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