Sources & References
Metro Job Market Pulse · DE NONMETROPOLITAN AREA · 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
Healthcare/social assistance up 5.4%, accommodation/food services down 2.2%
Delaware Department of Labor — 2025 Annual Economic Report, published September 2026
Delaware added 600 jobs between July and August 2026
Delaware Business Times — Monthly state employment report coverage
Delaware hourly earnings up nearly 4% year-over-year
Delaware Business Now — Wage and inflation comparison, September 2026
Local Economic Conditions
Sussex County unemployment fell to 4.3% in July 2026
WGMD — Local news report on Sussex County unemployment data
Delaware labor force participation fell to 59.7% from 61.0%
Joint Economic Committee / Delaware Public Media — State labor force participation data
Looking Ahead
National September payrolls added 29,000, below 12-month average
Bureau of Labor Statistics — National employment situation report, September 2026
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