Sources & References
Metro Job Market Pulse · Columbus, OH 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
Central Ohio job losses in three of six months through June 2026, net -0.1%
Akron Cleveland Realtors labor report — Regional labor market trend analysis
Ohio labor force shrank by 95,000 year-over-year as of August 2026
Ohio Department of Job and Family Services — State labor force participation data
Ohio added just 2,100 jobs in August vs 127,000 US private-sector jobs
Policy Matters Ohio — State employment growth comparison
Ohio faces shortage of 14,000 skilled construction workers in 2026
Associated Builders and Contractors of Ohio — Construction labor supply outlook
Local Economic Conditions
Columbus MSA employment at 1,136,500 with 3.2% unemployment, July 2026
U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics — Metro area employment and unemployment statistics
Looking Ahead
Ohio labor force participation at 61.3% vs 61.6% national rate
U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics — Labor force participation rate comparison
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