Sources & References
Metro Job Market Pulse · Boulder, CO 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
Colorado unemployment rose to 4.0% in August 2026, losing 1,400 jobs
Colorado Department of Labor and Employment — Monthly labor market data release
This Month's Takeaways
Colorado was the only peer state with negative net domestic migration in 2025
Colorado Business Economic Outlook — State demographic and labor force analysis
Local Economic Conditions
Boulder County employment declined 1.0% year-over-year in Q1 2026
Bureau of Labor Statistics — County Employment and Wages release, September 2026
Boulder County average weekly wages rose 6.6% to $2,107 in Q1 2026
Bureau of Labor Statistics — Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages
Looking Ahead
Colorado minimum wage rising to $15.71 in 2027
Colorado Department of Labor and Employment — Minimum wage announcement, August 2026
Leeds Business Confidence Index rose 1.3 points but remains below neutral
University of Colorado Leeds School of Business — Leeds Business Confidence Index, Q2-Q3 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