Sources & References
Metro Job Market Pulse · Columbus, IN 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
This Month's Takeaways
Manufacturing comprises 38% of Bartholomew County workforce vs 9% nationally
Indiana Business Research Center — County industry concentration analysis
Indiana lost 16,100 net payroll jobs over trailing 12 months
Bureau of Labor Statistics / State labor announcement — State payroll employment trend data
Initial unemployment claims rose from 17 to 28 week-over-week
The Republic — Weekly county unemployment claims reporting
Local Economic Conditions
Bartholomew County unemployment at 3.5% in August, down from 4.0% year prior
The Republic — Local news report on county unemployment data
Labor force shrank by 1,450 people in Bartholomew County
Indiana Department of Workforce Development — County labor force data cited in local reporting
Looking Ahead
Indiana labor force participation fell 0.8 points to 63% over past year
Indiana University In Context / State labor data — State labor force participation trend
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