Sources & References
Metro Job Market Pulse · Florence-Muscle Shoals, 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
Key Indicators
Alabama statewide unemployment rate of 3.4% vs national 4.1%, August 2026
Alabama Department of Workforce — Statewide unemployment report, September 2026 release
This Month's Takeaways
Lauderdale and Colbert County average weekly wages
Alabama Department of Workforce / BLS QCEW — County-level average weekly wage data, September 2025
Alabama construction employment fell 700 jobs in August 2026
Alabama Department of Workforce — Statewide sector employment change, September 2026 newsletter
Local Economic Conditions
Florence-Muscle Shoals MSA unemployment rate and employment levels, August 2026
Alabama Department of Workforce — MSA unemployment and employment figures, BLS cooperative data
Looking Ahead
Alabama filed 25 WARN notices affecting 2,162 workers in 2026
layoffdata.com — Alabama WARN Act notice tracking, 2026 year-to-date
Alabama prime-age labor force participation held at 79.5%
Alabama Department of Workforce — Prime-age labor force participation rate, August 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