Sources & References
Metro Job Market Pulse · Columbia, SC 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
South Carolina unemployment rate at 4.1% in August 2026
Federal Reserve Economic Data — State unemployment statistics
National nonfarm payrolls added 29,000 jobs in September 2026
Bureau of Labor Statistics — National employment situation report
This Month's Takeaways
Statewide average weekly wages grew 4.0% YoY to $1,296 in Q1 2026
Bureau of Labor Statistics — South Carolina wage data
Six of seven largest SC counties saw employment gains; Charleston led at 1.3%
SC Department of Employment and Workforce — County-level employment growth data
Local Economic Conditions
Columbia MSA nonfarm employment at 434,900 jobs, March 2026
Bureau of Labor Statistics — Columbia MSA employment data
Columbia MSA average weekly wage fell 2.4% YoY to $1,018.31
Bureau of Labor Statistics — Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages
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