Sources & References
Metro Job Market Pulse · Cape Coral-Fort Myers, FL 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
Florida statewide unemployment at 4.5% in August, third consecutive decline
Florida Department of Commerce — Monthly unemployment report, reported Sept 18, 2026
National real average hourly earnings down 0.1% year-over-year
Bureau of Labor Statistics — Real Earnings report, Aug 2026
Local Economic Conditions
Cape Coral-Fort Myers labor force near 377,000 and unemployment near 4.8%
Bureau of Labor Statistics / FRED — Metro labor force and unemployment data, Dec 2025
Florida job growth of 0.6% year-over-year outpacing national 0.4%
Florida Department of Commerce — State employment report, Aug 2026
Looking Ahead
Florida minimum wage rising to $15.00/hour effective Sept 30, 2026
Florida Department of Commerce — State minimum wage schedule
Fort Myers metro has 20 WARN notices affecting 1,360 workers on file
WARN Fire Hose — WARN Act notice tracking database
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