{"schema_version": 1, "id": "coeur-d-alene-id-msa/life-sciences/2026-10", "product": "Labor Market Pulse", "metro": {"geography_id": 200, "label": "Coeur d'Alene, ID MSA", "slug": "coeur-d-alene-id-msa"}, "focus_area": {"key": "life_sciences", "slug": "life-sciences", "label": "Life Sciences"}, "period": "2026-10", "public_after": "2026-10-01", "frozen_at": "2026-11-03T03:56:38.581200+00:00", "headline": "Coeur d'Alene prices clinical talent like a scarcity market.", "headline_summary": "Advertised CRA pay in Coeur d'Alene hit $108,215, roughly 20% above the $90,065 national median, while county wages grew 5.2% against 3.6% nationally.", "key_indicators": [{"label": "Kootenai County wage growth", "value": "5.2%", "context": "vs 3.6% national average wage growth"}, {"label": "CRA advertised pay (metro)", "value": "$108,215", "context": "vs $90,065 national median"}, {"label": "Regulatory Affairs pay direction", "value": "Up moderate (metro)", "context": "vs down moderate nationally"}, {"label": "Kootenai County civilian labor force", "value": "88,984", "context": "July 2026, limited pool for specialized hiring"}], "takeaways": [{"headline": "Coeur d'Alene is pricing CRA talent like a scarcity market.", "body": "Advertised CRA pay locally ($108,215) runs about 20% above the national median ($90,065), consistent with a labor force too small to absorb specialized clinical operations demand. Employers relying on national survey data to set CRA offers risk losing candidates to locally calibrated competitors."}, {"headline": "Regulatory Affairs pay is diverging from the national trend.", "body": "Metro Regulatory Affairs Specialist pay is up moderately while the national median has declined, a split that may reflect a persistently thin local regulatory bench apart from broader national hiring conditions. Organizations should evaluate whether local regulatory postings are taking longer to fill, mirroring the extended 29-day posting duration trend reported statewide."}, {"headline": "Biostatistician pay softening locally bucks the broader scarcity story.", "body": "Biostatistician advertised pay is down moderately in the metro even as Clinical Data Manager and CRA pay rise sharply, suggesting this single role may be adequately supplied or increasingly handled through remote and outsourced arrangements. Worth testing whether local postings reflect local hires specifically or remote-eligible roles priced against a wider labor pool."}, {"headline": "Small labor force amplifies every hiring decision's ripple effect.", "body": "A civilian labor force near 89,000 means even modest increases in specialized hiring demand can move advertised pay quickly, as seen in the county's 5.2% wage growth outpacing the 3.6% national rate. Build-vs-outsource decisions for CRO/CDMO partnerships carry outsized local labor market consequences compared to larger metros where talent pools absorb demand shifts more easily."}], "local_conditions": "Kootenai County's labor force remains constrained near 89,000 workers while average wages climbed 5.2% over the past year, outpacing the 3.6% national average and signaling a market where employers compete hard for a small, slow-growing talent pool. Hiring activity in the metro continues to concentrate in healthcare, construction, and professional services, leaving the thin bench of credentialed scientific and regulatory talent exposed to pull from the larger Boise and Spokane labor sheds.", "implications": "Metro-level advertised pay for Clinical Research Associate ($108,215) and Clinical Data Manager ($125,237) now sits meaningfully above national medians for CRAs and in line with national medians for data managers, suggesting local employers are already paying a scarcity premium for Coeur d'Alene talent instead of a geographic discount. With Regulatory Affairs Specialist pay rising locally (+moderate) even as national regulatory pay has softened, biotech and device employers competing for the same narrow bench of QA/RA professionals should expect compensation compression to work against them in retention. Consider reviewing CRA and clinical data management offers against metro-specific figures, since this market may already be pricing scarcity that national benchmarks understate.", "looking_ahead": [{"category": "Worth watching", "body": "Idaho's statewide quit-rate and wage data should clarify whether Kootenai County's 5.2% wage growth sustains into Q4 or reflects a temporary scarcity spike tied to a handful of specialized postings. A pullback would ease pressure on regulatory and clinical data compensation benchmarking."}, {"category": "Emerging pressure point", "body": "Statewide labor force participation fell to 61.4% in September alongside a 3.4% enrollment decline at Lewis-Clark State College, pointing to a shrinking early-career pipeline feeding into lab technician and junior scientific roles. Life Sci employers dependent on local entry-level hiring should factor longer time-to-fill into headcount plans."}, {"category": "Potential inflection point", "body": "Idaho's Professional, Scientific, and Technical Services sector was the only industry segment to see declining hiring demand in Eastern Idaho data this month, a signal worth tracking for whether it extends into Kootenai County's scientific and regulatory job postings over the next reporting cycle."}, {"category": "Early indicator", "body": "National biopharma quit rates remain low at 1.9%, meaning experienced regulatory and clinical staff are largely staying put. Watch whether that national stability holds locally or whether Coeur d'Alene's wage premiums begin pulling specialized talent from neighboring Spokane and Boise labor markets."}], "roles": [{"role": "Research Scientist", "data_scope": "state_rollup", "metro_p25": 109700.0, "metro_p50": 123482.0, "metro_p75": 149000.0, "metro_trend_direction": "up", "metro_trend_magnitude": "significant", "national_p50": 130339.0, "national_trend_direction": "up", "national_trend_magnitude": "significant"}, {"role": "Clinical Research Associate", "data_scope": "state_rollup", "metro_p25": 60000.0, "metro_p50": 108215.0, "metro_p75": 113374.0, "metro_trend_direction": "up", "metro_trend_magnitude": "significant", "national_p50": 90065.0, "national_trend_direction": "up", "national_trend_magnitude": "significant"}, {"role": "Lab Technician", "data_scope": "state_rollup", "metro_p25": 37517.25, "metro_p50": 42640.0, "metro_p75": 43420.0, "metro_trend_direction": "up", "metro_trend_magnitude": "moderate", "national_p50": 47840.0, "national_trend_direction": "stable", "national_trend_magnitude": "stable"}, {"role": "Regulatory Affairs Specialist", "data_scope": "state_rollup", "metro_p25": 77370.75, "metro_p50": 87849.0, "metro_p75": 113287.0, "metro_trend_direction": "up", "metro_trend_magnitude": "moderate", "national_p50": 103779.6, "national_trend_direction": "down", "national_trend_magnitude": "moderate"}, {"role": "Clinical Data Manager", "data_scope": "state_rollup", "metro_p25": 111109.0, "metro_p50": 125236.8, "metro_p75": 169000.0, "metro_trend_direction": "up", "metro_trend_magnitude": "significant", "national_p50": 123653.0, "national_trend_direction": "stable", "national_trend_magnitude": "stable"}, {"role": "Biostatistician", "data_scope": "state_rollup", "metro_p25": 95629.75, "metro_p50": 128298.8, "metro_p75": 128486.0, "metro_trend_direction": "down", "metro_trend_magnitude": "moderate", "national_p50": 131958.0, "national_trend_direction": "stable", "national_trend_magnitude": "stable"}, {"role": "Validation Engineer", "data_scope": null, "metro_p25": null, "metro_p50": null, "metro_p75": null, "metro_trend_direction": null, "metro_trend_magnitude": null, "national_p50": 106478.0, "national_trend_direction": "stable", "national_trend_magnitude": "stable"}], "industry_snapshot": [], "citations": [{"source_name": "Idaho Department of Labor", "source_url": null, "statement": "Kootenai County average wages rose 5.2% over the past year, above national 3.6%"}, {"source_name": "Idaho Department of Labor", "source_url": null, "statement": "Kootenai County civilian labor force was 88,984 in July 2026"}, {"source_name": "Industry biopharma labor market survey", "source_url": null, "statement": "National quit rate in biopharma sits at 1.9%, indicating low voluntary turnover"}, {"source_name": "Idaho Department of Labor", "source_url": null, "statement": "Idaho labor force participation rate fell to 61.4% in September 2026"}, {"source_name": "Idaho Department of Labor", "source_url": null, "statement": "Lewis-Clark State College Fall 2026 enrollment down 3.4% from 2025 record"}, {"source_name": "Idaho Department of Labor Labor Market Information", "source_url": null, "statement": "Professional, Scientific and Technical Services was only sector with declining hiring demand in Eastern Idaho"}], "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": "coeur-d-alene-id-msa/life-sciences/2026-10.html", "pdf": "coeur-d-alene-id-msa/life-sciences/2026-10.pdf"}, "published_at": "2026-11-03T08:20:13.176366+00:00", "report_html_url": "https://reports.wagescape.com/archive/v1/editions/coeur-d-alene-id-msa/life-sciences/2026-10.html", "report_pdf_url": "https://reports.wagescape.com/archive/v1/editions/coeur-d-alene-id-msa/life-sciences/2026-10.pdf"}