Sources & References
Metro Job Market Pulse · Missoula, 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
Key Indicators
Montana statewide wage growth ranked first nationally at 5.4% in 2025
Bureau of Labor Statistics / Montana Department of Labor — 2025 state wage growth ranking
This Month's Takeaways
Healthcare added 1,200+ jobs in Montana in 2025, hospital employment up 900+
Montana Department of Labor and Industry — 2025 Montana sector employment data
Local Economic Conditions
Missoula County unemployment rate at 2.8% in August 2026, employment at 69,408
Montana Governor's Office — August 2026 Missoula County employment data
National unemployment at 4.2%, wage growth at 3.0% vs 3.4% inflation in September
Bureau of Labor Statistics — September 2026 national jobs report
Looking Ahead
Glacier National Park visitation down 2.3%, hospitality employment down 1.4% in northwest Montana
Montana tourism/labor research notes — 2026 Montana visitation and hospitality employment data
Financial activities sector down 129,000 jobs nationally since May 2025 peak
Bureau of Labor Statistics — National financial sector employment trend
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