Sources & References
Metro Job Market Pulse · Denver-Aurora, CO 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
Headline
National posted wage growth at 2.5% year over year through August 2026
Indeed Hiring Lab — National wage growth benchmark
Key Indicators
Denver-Aurora-Centennial MSA unemployment at 3.9% in June 2026
Bureau of Labor Statistics, Mountain-Plains Information Office — Metro-area unemployment data
This Month's Takeaways
Denver-Aurora-Lakewood median annual pay grew 5.8% over 12 months
Bureau of Labor Statistics / Colorado Business Economic Outlook — Metro wage growth figure
Colorado labor force participation fell to 67.4% from 68.1% year-over-year
Colorado Business Economic Outlook — State labor force participation trend
Local Economic Conditions
Colorado unemployment reached 4.0% in August 2026, third straight monthly job loss
Colorado Department of Labor and Employment / BLS — State labor market monthly release
Looking Ahead
Colorado WARN notices down 11% year over year, 42 notices affecting 5,059 workers
Colorado WARN Act filings — State layoff notice tracking
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