Sources & References
Metro Job Market Pulse · KS NONMETROPOLITAN AREA · 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
Kansas labor force participation rate at 67.4% in April 2026 vs 61.8% U.S.
Federal Reserve Economic Data / BLS — State and national labor force participation comparison
Kansas labor force declined from 1,570,281 to 1,554,750 year-over-year
Kansas Department of Labor — Statewide labor force participation tracking, June 2024-2026
This Month's Takeaways
Kansas private-sector hourly earnings rose 4.6% to $32.98 in April 2026
Kansas Action for Children analysis of BLS data — Private sector wage growth vs Midwest CPI
Local Economic Conditions
Labor availability is the top limiting factor on Tenth District business growth
Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City — September 2026 Beige Book, Tenth District
Looking Ahead
Kansas WARN notices down 35% year-over-year with zero in last 90 days
LayoffData / Kansas WARN database — Statewide layoff notice tracking, 2026
National September payrolls rose 29,000 against 84,000 forecast
Bureau of Labor Statistics — September 2026 national jobs report
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