Sources & References
Metro Job Market Pulse · Dalton, GA 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
Dalton total nonfarm jobs at 65,900, down 700 year-over-year
Georgia Department of Labor — Dalton MSA August 2026 employment report
Georgia unemployment rate at 3.2%, 0.9 points below national rate
Georgia Department of Labor — Georgia August 2026 labor market report
This Month's Takeaways
Georgia healthcare/social assistance added 19,100 jobs annually, leading sector gains
Georgia Department of Labor — Georgia August 2026 sector employment data
Local Economic Conditions
Dalton unemployment at 3.4% in August, down from 3.8% a year earlier
Georgia Department of Labor — Dalton MSA August 2026 labor force data
Looking Ahead
National nonfarm payrolls added 29,000 jobs in September, wage growth at 3.0% vs 3.4% inflation
Bureau of Labor Statistics — September 2026 national employment situation report
Georgia professional/technical services down 11,600 jobs, federal government down 9,400 year-over-year
Georgia Department of Labor — Georgia August 2026 sector employment data
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