Sources & References
Metro Job Market Pulse · Houston-Sugar Land-Baytown, TX MSA · September 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
Houston metro unemployment rate 5.0% in August 2026, above Texas 4.9% and U.S. 4.4%
Texas Workforce Commission / Apollo Technical — Texas Labor Market Data for August 2026
Houston added 44,700 jobs over 12 months through August 2026, record 3.52M nonfarm positions
Iowa Park Leader / BLS via TWC — Houston 12-month job gains through August 2026
Houston ECI total compensation rose 0.3% YoY through March 2026 — lowest of 15 major metros tracked by BLS
U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics — BLS Employment Cost Index, Houston Metro, March 2026
Houston CPI-U rose 0.8% year-over-year through June 2026; core CPI -0.6%
U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics — BLS CPI-U Houston-The Woodlands-Sugar Land, June 2026
This Month's Takeaways
Healthcare on pace for ~45% of Houston's net new jobs in 2026; World Cup boosted leisure/hospitality hiring temporarily
Workforce Solutions Gulf Coast — Six Houston Industries to Watch for Job Growth in 2026
Local Economic Conditions
Oil and gas extraction declined 5.2% year-over-year through June 2026 per BLS; GHP projected ~3,200 upstream losses for 2026
Greater Houston Partnership / BLS Houston Area Economic Summary — BLS Houston Area Economic Summary, updated August 3, 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