Sources & References
Metro Job Market Pulse · El Centro, CA 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
Lithium extraction projects projected to create 2,500 jobs
Farmonaut / County development projections — County development projection on lithium sector growth
Calexico unemployment rate at 28.4%, Westmorland at 19.9%
Imperial Valley Press / California EDD — Municipal-level unemployment breakdown within Imperial County
Local Economic Conditions
El Centro MSA unemployment rate at 21.9% in September 2026
California Employment Development Department — State labor market data release for Imperial County
Spreckels Sugar Plant closure eliminated over 700 jobs
Farmonaut / County economic analysis — Local economic impact reporting on plant closure
Looking Ahead
National wage growth at 3.0% annual vs 3.4% inflation
Bureau of Labor Statistics — September 2026 national wage and inflation comparison
California unemployment at 5.1% in August 2026
California Employment Development Department — Statewide unemployment comparison figure
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