{"schema_version": 1, "id": "cleveland-elyria-mentor-oh-msa/human-resources/2026-09", "product": "Labor Market Pulse", "metro": {"geography_id": 134, "label": "Cleveland-Elyria-Mentor, OH MSA", "slug": "cleveland-elyria-mentor-oh-msa"}, "focus_area": {"key": "human_resources", "slug": "human-resources", "label": "Human Resources"}, "period": "2026-09", "public_after": "2026-09-01", "frozen_at": "2026-10-09T13:08:10.228813+00:00", "headline": "Cleveland hiring climbs while its own HR talent gets underpaid.", "headline_summary": "Cleveland employment hit a seven-year high of 1.104 million jobs in June, but local Benefits Manager and HRIS Analyst advertised pay fell even as national medians rose, exposing metro employers to talent loss under Ohio's new pay transparency rules.", "key_indicators": [{"label": "Metro nonfarm employment", "value": "1.104M", "context": "Highest since June 2019 (BLS)"}, {"label": "Metro average weekly wage", "value": "$1,482", "context": "vs $1,654 U.S. average, Q1 2026"}, {"label": "Ohio labor force change", "value": "-95,000", "context": "Year-over-year as of August 2026"}, {"label": "Metro/state unemployment rate", "value": "3.3%", "context": "Cleveland (June) and Ohio (Aug), vs 4.1% U.S."}], "takeaways": [{"headline": "Metro HR talent itself is getting a pay cut relative to the nation.", "body": "Compensation Analyst, Benefits Manager, and HRIS Analyst advertised pay all fell significantly or moderately in Cleveland this month while national medians for Benefits Manager and HRIS Analyst rose moderately. Firms benchmarking against local medians alone risk setting offers that look competitive locally but are losing ground to remote-eligible national postings."}, {"headline": "Recruiter pay is rising here while HR support pay stalls.", "body": "Local Recruiter advertised pay rose moderately to $61,732 even as HR Coordinator held flat at $46,156, suggesting employers are investing in sourcing capacity ahead of broader headcount growth rather than backfilling administrative support. This pattern is consistent with a market preparing to hire selectively rather than broadly."}, {"headline": "Pay transparency law changes the local competitive calculus.", "body": "Cleveland's posted-range mandate for employers with 15+ workers means declining local medians for compensation and benefits roles are now fully visible to candidates comparing offers, not just available through aggregated survey data. Organizations should evaluate whether current ranges signal underinvestment in functions candidates can now see are better-paid elsewhere."}, {"headline": "Metro job growth is real, but it's not translating to wage pressure.", "body": "Cleveland outpaced Ohio's statewide hiring slowdown and employment hit a seven-year high, yet weekly wages still trail the national average by roughly 10%. Growth without wage convergence may reflect industry mix \u2014 healthcare and manufacturing strength rather than higher-paying tech or finance expansion \u2014 a signal worth tracking when setting merit budgets."}], "local_conditions": "Cleveland-Elyria metro employment hit 1.104 million in June 2026, its highest level since 2019, with PNC naming Cleveland the state's growth leader even as Ohio's statewide labor force contracted by 95,000 workers year-over-year. Metro average weekly wages of $1,482 in Q1 2026 remained well below the $1,654 national average, a gap that compounds as Cleveland's compensation-adjacent roles \u2014 Compensation Analyst, Benefits Manager, HRIS Analyst \u2014 all posted significant year-over-year declines in advertised pay even while national postings for the same roles rose.", "implications": "Local employment growth is outpacing the state, but advertised pay for compensation, benefits, and HRIS roles is falling locally while climbing nationally \u2014 a divergence that puts metro employers at growing risk of losing specialized HR talent to remote or out-of-metro opportunities paying national rates. Cleveland's Pay Transparency Act, requiring posted salary ranges for employers with 15+ staff, raises the stakes of this gap since candidates can now directly compare local postings against better-paying national listings in real time. Consider reviewing compensation and benefits function pay against national advertised rates rather than metro historicals, particularly for roles where remote work is viable.", "looking_ahead": [{"category": "Expected release", "body": "Official September BLS unemployment data for Cleveland-Elyria-Mentor should post in early October via OHIOLMI; watch whether the metro holds its June reading of 3.3% or tracks the state's broader labor force contraction."}, {"category": "Emerging pressure point", "body": "Ohio's statewide labor force has shrunk 95,000 workers year-over-year with employment up only 5,000 over the same period \u2014 if this pattern reaches Cleveland specifically, expect tightening competition for compensation and HRIS talent already seeing pay cuts locally."}, {"category": "Worth watching", "body": "Information-sector layoffs nationally (Amazon, Meta, Verizon, Oracle cited in September WARN filings) could push displaced tech and HRIS-adjacent talent into the Cleveland candidate pool; monitor whether applicant volume for HRIS Analyst and Compensation Analyst roles increases without corresponding wage recovery."}, {"category": "Potential inflection point", "body": "Pay Transparency Act compliance combined with falling local HR-function pay creates visible competitive exposure; watch whether larger Cleveland employers adjust posted ranges upward in Q4 to stem candidate drop-off to national remote postings."}], "roles": [{"role": "Compensation Analyst", "data_scope": "metro", "metro_p25": 69439.5, "metro_p50": 95710.0, "metro_p75": 96686.0, "metro_trend_direction": "down", "metro_trend_magnitude": "significant", "national_p50": 101727.4, "national_trend_direction": "stable", "national_trend_magnitude": "stable"}, {"role": "HR Business Partner", "data_scope": "metro", "metro_p25": 57824.25, "metro_p50": 77200.0, "metro_p75": 86018.5, "metro_trend_direction": "up", "metro_trend_magnitude": "moderate", "national_p50": 83766.0, "national_trend_direction": "up", "national_trend_magnitude": "significant"}, {"role": "Benefits Manager", "data_scope": "metro", "metro_p25": 68283.0, "metro_p50": 97712.4, "metro_p75": 116150.0, "metro_trend_direction": "down", "metro_trend_magnitude": "significant", "national_p50": 117888.0, "national_trend_direction": "up", "national_trend_magnitude": "moderate"}, {"role": "HRIS Analyst", "data_scope": "metro", "metro_p25": 74430.0, "metro_p50": 84267.0, "metro_p75": 84267.0, "metro_trend_direction": "down", "metro_trend_magnitude": "moderate", "national_p50": 97554.8, "national_trend_direction": "up", "national_trend_magnitude": "moderate"}, {"role": "HR Coordinator", "data_scope": "metro", "metro_p25": 38998.5, "metro_p50": 46156.0, "metro_p75": 51866.0, "metro_trend_direction": "stable", "metro_trend_magnitude": "stable", "national_p50": 50000.0, "national_trend_direction": "up", "national_trend_magnitude": "moderate"}, {"role": "Recruiter", "data_scope": "metro", "metro_p25": 47500.0, "metro_p50": 61732.4, "metro_p75": 72800.0, "metro_trend_direction": "up", "metro_trend_magnitude": "moderate", "national_p50": 68167.0, "national_trend_direction": "up", "national_trend_magnitude": "moderate"}, {"role": "Payroll Specialist", "data_scope": "metro", "metro_p25": 46061.25, "metro_p50": 55080.0, "metro_p75": 64835.0, "metro_trend_direction": "down", "metro_trend_magnitude": "moderate", "national_p50": 59855.0, "national_trend_direction": "up", "national_trend_magnitude": "moderate"}], "industry_snapshot": [], "citations": [], "methodology": "Advertised pay from active employer job postings, not survey data. WageScape's median is calibrated to correct for spurious low-value postings: distribution analysis shows roughly the lowest 10% of raw values are erroneous entries, so the reported median is the 60th percentile of raw advertised pay.", "edition_label": "October 2026", "files": {"html": "cleveland-elyria-mentor-oh-msa/human-resources/2026-09.html", "pdf": "cleveland-elyria-mentor-oh-msa/human-resources/2026-09.pdf"}, "published_at": "2026-10-09T13:49:30.512146+00:00", "report_html_url": "https://reports.wagescape.com/archive/v1/editions/cleveland-elyria-mentor-oh-msa/human-resources/2026-09.html", "report_pdf_url": "https://reports.wagescape.com/archive/v1/editions/cleveland-elyria-mentor-oh-msa/human-resources/2026-09.pdf"}