Sources & References
Metro Job Market Pulse · Bloomington-Normal, IL 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
Illinois unemployment rate was 4.7% in August 2026
Illinois Department of Employment Security — Illinois monthly labor market data release
This Month's Takeaways
National average hourly earnings growth slowed to 3.0% against 3.4% inflation
Bureau of Labor Statistics — National wage growth and CPI comparison, September 2026
Local Economic Conditions
Bloomington-Normal MSA unemployment rate was 3.3% in July 2026
Bureau of Labor Statistics / FRED — Local area unemployment statistics
McLean County average weekly wages rose 6.2% YoY to $1,498 in Q1 2026
U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics — County Employment and Wages Report (QCEW)
Looking Ahead
Illinois labor force contracted from 6.571M to 6.477M between March and August 2026
Moody's Analytics / CGFA — Illinois labor force participation analysis
Illinois recorded 91 WARN notices affecting 16,782 workers year-to-date 2026
Illinois Department of Labor WARN Act filings — State WARN notice tracking, year-to-date 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