{"schema_version": 1, "id": "cleveland-elyria-mentor-oh-msa/human-resources/2026-10", "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": "2026-10", "public_after": "2026-10-01", "frozen_at": "2026-11-03T02:10:49.414996+00:00", "headline": "Cleveland wages outpace the nation while Ohio's labor market cools.", "headline_summary": "Cuyahoga County wages grew 4.8% year-over-year against a 3.0% national pace, even as Ohio shed 5,000 jobs statewide and Benefits Manager advertised pay climbed to $112,453 locally.", "key_indicators": [{"label": "Cuyahoga County wage growth", "value": "4.8%", "context": "vs 3.0% national average hourly earnings growth"}, {"label": "Cleveland metro unemployment", "value": "3.3%", "context": "vs 3.4% Ohio, 4.1% national rate"}, {"label": "Cleveland metro nonfarm employment", "value": "1.104 million", "context": "Highest level since June 2019"}, {"label": "Ohio labor force participation", "value": "61.2%", "context": "vs 61.8% national rate, trending down"}], "takeaways": [{"headline": "Cleveland wages are rising faster than the national trend.", "body": "Cuyahoga County average weekly wages grew 4.8% year-over-year versus a national 3.0% pace in average hourly earnings. Compensation budgets anchored to national benchmarks risk understating local competitive pressure."}, {"headline": "Benefits Manager pay signals rising plan-design complexity.", "body": "Metro advertised pay for Benefits Manager climbed to a median of $112,453, a significant increase alongside national gains to $118,618. Demand looks tied to IRS benefit limit changes and dependent care exclusion corrections that require active plan administration expertise, not just headcount growth."}, {"headline": "Compensation Analyst advertised pay is softening locally against a stable national line.", "body": "Metro median pay for Compensation Analyst fell to $95,710 while the national figure held near $100,798. Divergence may suggest local employers are deprioritizing this function even as pay transparency compliance deadlines expand nationally, a mismatch worth revisiting."}, {"headline": "Metro job growth is outrunning Ohio's statewide contraction.", "body": "Cleveland metro nonfarm employment hit a seven-year high while Ohio shed 5,000 jobs statewide in September and labor force participation fell to 61.2%. Hiring plans built on statewide labor supply assumptions may overstate how much slack actually exists in the Cleveland candidate pool."}], "local_conditions": "Cleveland-Elyria-Mentor MSA unemployment held at 3.3% through mid-2026 with total nonfarm employment at 1.104 million \u2014 its highest level since June 2019 \u2014 while Cuyahoga County average weekly wages rose 4.8% year-over-year to $1,630 in Q1, outpacing both the state's 3.4% unemployment reading and the slower national wage growth trend. Divergence between a resilient metro labor market and Ohio's statewide job losses (5,000 shed in September, participation rate down to 61.2%) suggests Cleveland-area employers are retaining headcount even as softness shows up elsewhere in the state, with manufacturing WARN activity concentrated outside Cuyahoga County rather than inside it.", "implications": "Local wage growth outpacing the national 3.0% average suggests Cleveland-area employers are still competing actively for talent despite a national low-hire, low-fire environment, meaning compensation strategy can't simply default to the muted national wage story. With Ohio's labor force contracting statewide even as Cleveland's job base expands, retention economics look stronger locally than recruitment economics \u2014 internal mobility and development investment may outperform external hiring on cost-per-fill. Consider reviewing whether current merit budgets reflect the 4.8% local wage trajectory rather than the slower 3.0% national benchmark, particularly for roles facing documented regional demand.", "looking_ahead": [{"category": "Worth watching", "body": "Cuyahoga County's 4.8% wage growth has outpaced national trends for at least one quarter; watch whether Q2 2026 data confirms this as a durable pattern or a one-quarter anomaly before resetting merit budgets."}, {"category": "Emerging pressure point", "body": "Ohio's statewide labor force participation decline (61.2% vs. 61.8% nationally) hasn't yet shown up in Cleveland metro employment data, which remains near a seven-year high. A reversal here would tighten the local candidate pool further and raise replacement costs."}, {"category": "Expected", "body": "Full BLS Cleveland-Elyria-Mentor MSA data for October releases November 24 and will clarify whether the metro's outperformance relative to Ohio persisted into fall, directly informing Q1 2027 compensation planning cycles."}, {"category": "Early indicator", "body": "Recent Cuyahoga-area WARN filings (First Brands Group, Main Street Sports Group, Parma closure affecting 55 workers) remain scattered and sector-mixed rather than concentrated, unlike statewide manufacturing contraction. Monitor whether any pattern consolidates by sector heading into year-end."}], "roles": [{"role": "Compensation Analyst", "data_scope": "metro", "metro_p25": 68029.0, "metro_p50": 95710.0, "metro_p75": 96686.0, "metro_trend_direction": "down", "metro_trend_magnitude": "moderate", "national_p50": 100798.0, "national_trend_direction": "stable", "national_trend_magnitude": "stable"}, {"role": "HR Business Partner", "data_scope": "metro", "metro_p25": 57830.0, "metro_p50": 76679.2, "metro_p75": 85834.5, "metro_trend_direction": "up", "metro_trend_magnitude": "moderate", "national_p50": 83900.0, "national_trend_direction": "up", "national_trend_magnitude": "moderate"}, {"role": "Benefits Manager", "data_scope": "metro", "metro_p25": 79939.0, "metro_p50": 112452.8, "metro_p75": 118458.0, "metro_trend_direction": "up", "metro_trend_magnitude": "significant", "national_p50": 118618.2, "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": "stable", "metro_trend_magnitude": "stable", "national_p50": 95000.0, "national_trend_direction": "stable", "national_trend_magnitude": "stable"}, {"role": "HR Coordinator", "data_scope": "metro", "metro_p25": 39520.0, "metro_p50": 46322.0, "metro_p75": 51896.0, "metro_trend_direction": "stable", "metro_trend_magnitude": "stable", "national_p50": 50460.0, "national_trend_direction": "up", "national_trend_magnitude": "moderate"}, {"role": "Recruiter", "data_scope": "metro", "metro_p25": 48393.0, "metro_p50": 62500.0, "metro_p75": 74495.0, "metro_trend_direction": "up", "metro_trend_magnitude": "moderate", "national_p50": 67234.2, "national_trend_direction": "stable", "national_trend_magnitude": "stable"}, {"role": "Payroll Specialist", "data_scope": "metro", "metro_p25": 48018.0, "metro_p50": 57346.0, "metro_p75": 66071.0, "metro_trend_direction": "up", "metro_trend_magnitude": "moderate", "national_p50": 61103.0, "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": "November 2026", "files": {"html": "cleveland-elyria-mentor-oh-msa/human-resources/2026-10.html", "pdf": "cleveland-elyria-mentor-oh-msa/human-resources/2026-10.pdf"}, "published_at": "2026-11-03T08:20:05.296648+00:00", "report_html_url": "https://reports.wagescape.com/archive/v1/editions/cleveland-elyria-mentor-oh-msa/human-resources/2026-10.html", "report_pdf_url": "https://reports.wagescape.com/archive/v1/editions/cleveland-elyria-mentor-oh-msa/human-resources/2026-10.pdf"}