Sources & References
Metro Job Market Pulse · Mobile, AL 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
Alabama statewide unemployment rate at 3.4% in August 2026
Alabama Department of Workforce — Alabama preliminary seasonally adjusted unemployment report
Mobile County average weekly wages rose 3.7% year-over-year in Q1 2026
Bureau of Labor Statistics — County Employment and Wages (QCEW) report
This Month's Takeaways
National wage growth fell to 3.0% annually, below 3.4% inflation
Bureau of Labor Statistics — National Employment Situation / Real Earnings report
Local Economic Conditions
Mobile MSA unemployment rose to 4.4% in August 2026 from 3.8% a year earlier
Bureau of Labor Statistics / FRED — Mobile MSA local area unemployment statistics
ArcelorMittal $1.2 billion specialty steel facility announcement for Mobile County
Alabama Department of Workforce — State workforce agency economic development report
Looking Ahead
BLS metro-level unemployment data for September releases October 28, 2026
Bureau of Labor Statistics — BLS metro area data release schedule
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