Sources & References
Metro Job Market Pulse · Decatur, AL 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
Nucor Towers and Structures expansion to add 200+ jobs
WAFF / Morgan County Economic Development Association — Local economic development news coverage
Construction and manufacturing recorded record weekly wages in Alabama
Alabama Department of Workforce — July/August 2026 wage data by sector
Local Economic Conditions
Decatur MSA unemployment rate rose to 4.2% from 3.3% in July
Alabama Department of Workforce / BLS — Metro-level unemployment data, September 2026
Morgan County unemployment near 2.9% in August 2026
Alabama Department of Workforce — County-level unemployment estimates
Open Threads in the Data
National wage growth fell to 3.0%, trailing 3.4% inflation
Bureau of Labor Statistics — Average hourly earnings and CPI, September 2026
Looking Ahead
National manufacturing added 9,000 jobs in September 2026
Bureau of Labor Statistics — National nonfarm payroll sector breakdown
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