Sources & References
Metro Job Market Pulse · Great Falls, MT 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
Montana employment fell 0.3% in 2025, first annual decline since 2020
Montana Dept. of Labor and Industry — Statewide labor force and employment trend data
Montana ranked first nationally for wage growth in 2025 at 5.4%
Bureau of Labor Statistics / Montana Labor Market Research Notes — State wage growth ranking comparison
Local Economic Conditions
Cascade County unemployment rate at 3.0% in July 2026
Montana Dept. of Labor and Industry / County Profiles — County-level labor force and unemployment data
Malmstrom AFB accounts for 43% of basic industry income in Cascade County
Cascade County Economic Profile — Basic industry income composition by employer/sector
Looking Ahead
National wage growth slowed to 3.0% against 3.4% inflation
Bureau of Labor Statistics — National average hourly earnings and CPI comparison
Only four Montana urban counties saw 2025 job growth
Montana Dept. of Labor and Industry — County-level job growth rankings for 2025
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