Sources & References
Metro Job Market Pulse · Charleston, WV 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
West Virginia labor force participation rate of 54.5%, ranked last nationally
West Virginia Chamber of Commerce — State labor force participation analysis, 2026
This Month's Takeaways
Kanawha average weekly wage rose 3.7% to $1,192 in Q3 2025
U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics QCEW — Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages data
Mining sector accounted for 15 of 33 WV WARN notices, ~1,497 workers
UseFootnote WARN tracking — West Virginia WARN Act notice aggregation, trailing 24 months
Local Economic Conditions
Kanawha County unemployment rate of 3.9% in July 2026
U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics — County-level unemployment data, July 2026
Looking Ahead
National nonfarm payrolls added 29,000 jobs in September with downward revisions
Bureau of Labor Statistics — National employment situation report, September 2026
National wage growth slowed to 3.0% annual, lowest since May 2021
Bureau of Labor Statistics — Average hourly earnings data, September 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