{"schema_version": 1, "id": "jacksonville-nc-msa/human-resources/2026-10", "product": "Labor Market Pulse", "metro": {"geography_id": 286, "label": "Jacksonville, NC MSA", "slug": "jacksonville-nc-msa"}, "focus_area": {"key": "human_resources", "slug": "human-resources", "label": "Human Resources"}, "period": "2026-10", "public_after": "2026-10-01", "frozen_at": "2026-11-03T02:24:35.153002+00:00", "headline": "Jacksonville's wage growth is narrow, concentrated in benefits and healthcare.", "headline_summary": "Benefits Manager advertised pay climbed to $109,043 locally while HR Business Partner pay fell to $69,116, even as metro unemployment held flat at 3.9%.", "key_indicators": [{"label": "Jacksonville MSA unemployment", "value": "3.9%", "context": "Flat since June 2026; vs 3.4% statewide"}, {"label": "Benefits Manager advertised pay", "value": "$109,043", "context": "Up significantly vs $118,618 national median"}, {"label": "HR Business Partner advertised pay", "value": "$69,116", "context": "Down locally vs $83,900 national, up"}, {"label": "NC statewide unemployment", "value": "3.4%", "context": "vs 4.2% national rate, Sept 2026"}], "takeaways": [{"headline": "Benefits Manager pay signals a local bet on plan complexity.", "body": "A significant local increase to $109,043, outpacing even the national rise to $118,618, suggests Jacksonville employers are paying for specialized benefits administration capability, with general HR support commanding less of a premium. This tracks with the sector mix locally \u2014 healthcare and government employers managing complex plan structures and compliance obligations."}, {"headline": "HR generalist pay is softening locally while the nation moves up.", "body": "HR Business Partner advertised pay fell to $69,116 locally even as the national median rose to $83,900, and Recruiter pay dropped to $65,714 against a stable national figure. Widening gaps like these make it harder to use national compensation data to set local offers with confidence."}, {"headline": "Public-sector family benefits now set the local retention bar.", "body": "North Carolina's Public Workforce Modernization Act delivers 12 weeks fully paid parental leave to public employees starting this month, directly affecting healthcare and education employers competing with Onslow County Schools and Onslow Memorial Hospital for the same candidates. Private employers without comparable leave policies may see quiet attrition toward public-sector roles."}, {"headline": "A 3.9% metro jobless rate masks a narrower hiring engine.", "body": "Unemployment has held flat since June, but nearly all recent job growth concentrated in Education and Health Services, which grew roughly ten times faster than Leisure and Hospitality. Hiring plans built around broad-based demand may be overestimating how many sectors are actually competing for talent right now."}], "local_conditions": "Jacksonville MSA unemployment held at 3.9% in August, a rate largely unchanged since June and well above the 3.4% statewide figure, consistent with an economy anchored by Camp Lejeune and government-adjacent employment, with private-sector growth lifting Raleigh and Charlotte more than it has lifted Jacksonville. Education and Health Services employment grew roughly ten times faster than Leisure and Hospitality over the past year, while statewide professional/business services shed jobs \u2014 a divergence that points to healthcare and public-sector roles as the metro's primary wage-pressure points this month.", "implications": "Metro-level softening in Recruiter ($65,714, down) and HR Business Partner ($69,116, down) advertised pay against national increases suggests Jacksonville employers face less competitive pressure to raise entry- and mid-level HR pay than peers elsewhere, even as Benefits Manager pay climbs sharply both locally ($109,043) and nationally \u2014 a signal that benefits expertise is specifically where employers are willing to pay up, more so than for general HR generalist capacity. North Carolina's new 12-week paid parental leave mandate for public employees, effective October 1, raises the competitive bar for private employers competing with Onslow County Schools, Onslow County Government and Onslow Memorial Hospital for the same labor pool. Consider reviewing parental leave and family benefits positioning against public-sector competitors before the next hiring cycle, particularly for healthcare and education-adjacent roles.", "looking_ahead": [{"category": "Compliance deadline", "body": "NC's Public Workforce Modernization Act parental leave provisions took effect October 1 for public employees; private employers in healthcare and education should expect candidate comparisons to surface in interviews and counteroffers over the next hiring cycle."}, {"category": "Worth watching", "body": "Statewide WARN filings remain modest (10 notices, 1,123 workers in 90 days) with no major Jacksonville-specific filings this month, but manufacturing and healthcare account for the largest share statewide \u2014 a category to monitor if plant-level announcements emerge locally."}, {"category": "Early indicator", "body": "Camp Lejeune-linked contract and logistics hiring, such as Express Employment Professionals' November general labor project, offers a near-term read on whether base-adjacent demand is expanding or simply cycling through short-term contracts."}, {"category": "Emerging pressure point", "body": "Diverging local-versus-national advertised pay for Recruiter and HR Business Partner roles raises the risk of under-offering against candidates who benchmark against national data; watch whether offer-acceptance rates soften over the next two cycles."}], "roles": [{"role": "Compensation Analyst", "data_scope": "state_rollup", "metro_p25": 72500.0, "metro_p50": 97409.2, "metro_p75": 109090.5, "metro_trend_direction": "up", "metro_trend_magnitude": "moderate", "national_p50": 100798.0, "national_trend_direction": "stable", "national_trend_magnitude": "stable"}, {"role": "HR Business Partner", "data_scope": "metro", "metro_p25": 48923.0, "metro_p50": 69116.0, "metro_p75": 75382.5, "metro_trend_direction": "down", "metro_trend_magnitude": "moderate", "national_p50": 83900.0, "national_trend_direction": "up", "national_trend_magnitude": "moderate"}, {"role": "Benefits Manager", "data_scope": "state_rollup", "metro_p25": 80015.0, "metro_p50": 109043.0, "metro_p75": 119097.0, "metro_trend_direction": "up", "metro_trend_magnitude": "significant", "national_p50": 118618.2, "national_trend_direction": "up", "national_trend_magnitude": "moderate"}, {"role": "HRIS Analyst", "data_scope": "state_rollup", "metro_p25": 75533.75, "metro_p50": 87267.2, "metro_p75": 99500.0, "metro_trend_direction": "stable", "metro_trend_magnitude": "stable", "national_p50": 95000.0, "national_trend_direction": "stable", "national_trend_magnitude": "stable"}, {"role": "HR Coordinator", "data_scope": "state_rollup", "metro_p25": 39543.0, "metro_p50": 47500.0, "metro_p75": 53568.5, "metro_trend_direction": "stable", "metro_trend_magnitude": "stable", "national_p50": 50460.0, "national_trend_direction": "up", "national_trend_magnitude": "moderate"}, {"role": "Recruiter", "data_scope": "metro", "metro_p25": 64097.25, "metro_p50": 65713.8, "metro_p75": 72364.0, "metro_trend_direction": "down", "metro_trend_magnitude": "moderate", "national_p50": 67234.2, "national_trend_direction": "stable", "national_trend_magnitude": "stable"}, {"role": "Payroll Specialist", "data_scope": "state_rollup", "metro_p25": 46901.0, "metro_p50": 57200.0, "metro_p75": 66298.0, "metro_trend_direction": "stable", "metro_trend_magnitude": "stable", "national_p50": 61103.0, "national_trend_direction": "up", "national_trend_magnitude": "moderate"}], "industry_snapshot": [], "citations": [{"source_name": "North Carolina Department of Commerce", "source_url": null, "statement": "Jacksonville MSA unemployment rate at 3.9% as of August 2026"}, {"source_name": "Jacksonville Business Calendar", "source_url": null, "statement": "Education/Health Services job growth outpacing Leisure/Hospitality tenfold"}, {"source_name": "North Carolina General Assembly", "source_url": null, "statement": "NC Public Workforce Modernization Act grants 12 weeks paid parental leave"}, {"source_name": "Bureau of Labor Statistics", "source_url": null, "statement": "North Carolina statewide unemployment at 3.4% vs 4.2% national"}, {"source_name": "Layoffiq", "source_url": null, "statement": "10 WARN notices affecting 1,123 workers filed in NC over 90 days"}], "methodology": "Advertised pay from active employer job postings, not survey data. WageScape's median is calibrated to correct for spurious low-value postings: distribution analysis shows roughly the lowest 10% of raw values are erroneous entries, so the reported median is the 60th percentile of raw advertised pay.", "edition_label": "November 2026", "files": {"html": "jacksonville-nc-msa/human-resources/2026-10.html", "pdf": "jacksonville-nc-msa/human-resources/2026-10.pdf"}, "published_at": "2026-11-03T08:23:48.442251+00:00", "report_html_url": "https://reports.wagescape.com/archive/v1/editions/jacksonville-nc-msa/human-resources/2026-10.html", "report_pdf_url": "https://reports.wagescape.com/archive/v1/editions/jacksonville-nc-msa/human-resources/2026-10.pdf"}