{"schema_version": 1, "id": "olympia-wa-msa/metro-job-market/2026-09", "product": "Metro Job Market Pulse", "metro": {"geography_id": 408, "label": "Olympia, WA MSA", "slug": "olympia-wa-msa"}, "focus_area": {"key": "general_conditions", "slug": "metro-job-market", "label": "General Market Conditions"}, "period": "2026-09", "public_after": "2026-09-01", "frozen_at": "2026-10-09T13:41:27.030967+00:00", "headline": "Olympia unemployment jumps to 4.3% as healthcare growth holds steady.", "headline_summary": "Thurston County's unemployment rate climbed from 3.5% to 4.3% in a single month even as healthcare employment grew 6.4% year-over-year, a split that mirrors Washington's broader low-hire, low-fire economy.", "key_indicators": [{"label": "Thurston County unemployment", "value": "4.3%", "context": "Up from 3.5% in July; vs 4.1% US, 4.9% WA"}, {"label": "Local education/health job growth", "value": "+1,300 jobs (6.4%)", "context": "Year-over-year, Thurston County, July 2026"}, {"label": "Washington wage vs inflation", "value": "3.1% vs 3.5%", "context": "Real wages declining ~0.5% annually statewide"}, {"label": "Washington statewide job cuts", "value": "-14,500 jobs", "context": "September 2026, second consecutive weak month"}], "takeaways": [{"headline": "A one-month jump in joblessness deserves scrutiny, not alarm.", "body": "Thurston County unemployment rose nearly a full point in a single month, from 3.5% to 4.3%, a larger swing than the state's more gradual decline from 5.0% to 4.9% over the same period. Single-month county data is volatile; the figure is worth tracking into October before treating it as a trend break."}, {"headline": "Healthcare remains the metro's clearest growth engine.", "body": "Education and health services added 1,300 jobs locally over the year, a 6.4% increase anchored by Providence St. Peter Hospital, even as statewide healthcare layoffs appeared in isolated WARN filings like MultiCare's 138-worker notice. Registered nurse advertised pay is up significantly both locally and nationally, consistent with continued demand for clinical labor even amid broader softening."}, {"headline": "Government's size is a stabilizer, not a growth driver right now.", "body": "Government and administrative support remains the metro's single largest employer, a buffer that insulates Olympia from some private-sector volatility seen elsewhere in Washington. That same concentration means local momentum is tied closely to public employment trends, and the national data showing government payrolls down 216,000 over the past year is a signal worth watching for state-level spillover."}, {"headline": "Wage-vs-inflation gap is a statewide headwind for consumer spending.", "body": "Washington wage growth of 3.1% year-over-year is running behind 3.5% inflation, a real wage decline of roughly half a percentage point that applies metro-wide regardless of sector. Commerce leaders should treat this as a constraint on local discretionary spending capacity, not a one-off statistic."}], "local_conditions": "Thurston County's unemployment rate jumped from 3.5% in July to 4.3% in August, a sharper one-month move than the statewide shift and one that outpaces the national rate of 4.1%, even as local payrolls held near 133,100 and education/health services continued adding jobs on a year-over-year basis. Government and administrative support remain the metro's largest employment base, a structural buffer against the statewide hiring slowdown that cost Washington roughly 14,500 jobs in September, but one that also ties local momentum to public-sector budget decisions rather than private business investment.", "implications": "Local economic conditions point to a metro that is cooling but not contracting \u2014 the unemployment uptick looks consistent with a statewide pattern of weaker job creation rather than a localized shock, and healthcare's continued expansion (education and health services up 1,300 jobs year-over-year) suggests the metro's largest private employer base is still absorbing labor rather than shedding it. Commerce leaders weighing expansion or investment timing should weigh the gap between a resilient public/healthcare core and softer signals in retail and information-sector activity statewide; current conditions suggest monitoring whether the August unemployment tick is a one-month data artifact or the start of a trend before drawing conclusions about local business climate.", "looking_ahead": [{"category": "Potential inflection point", "body": "Watch whether Thurston County's August unemployment increase persists into September and October data releases. A reversal back toward 3.5-3.8% would support a one-month-noise interpretation; a further climb would point to a genuine local softening worth factoring into business investment timing."}, {"category": "Worth watching", "body": "Washington's statewide job losses (14,500 in September) and weak national payroll growth (29,000 added, with July and August revised down a combined 60,000) raise the question of whether Olympia's public-sector concentration will continue to outperform or eventually mirror broader state softness."}, {"category": "Early indicator", "body": "Healthcare sector WARN filings, including MultiCare's 138-worker notice, warrant tracking locally given healthcare's role as Thurston County's largest private-sector growth driver. A shift from hiring to layoff activity in this sector would mark a meaningful change in the metro's growth narrative."}, {"category": "Policy-relevant signal", "body": "Washington's minimum wage, already the nation's highest at $17.13/hour, and ongoing wage-vs-inflation divergence are relevant to any discussion of local labor force participation and consumer purchasing power. Present as bare economic facts rather than policy advocacy when briefing stakeholders."}], "roles": [{"role": "Retail Sales Associate", "data_scope": "metro", "metro_p25": 32416.0, "metro_p50": 37731.0, "metro_p75": 42020.0, "metro_trend_direction": "stable", "metro_trend_magnitude": "stable", "national_p50": 33325.0, "national_trend_direction": "stable", "national_trend_magnitude": "stable"}, {"role": "Retail Cashier", "data_scope": "metro", "metro_p25": 31429.5, "metro_p50": 36400.0, "metro_p75": 38519.5, "metro_trend_direction": "stable", "metro_trend_magnitude": "stable", "national_p50": 31200.0, "national_trend_direction": "stable", "national_trend_magnitude": "stable"}, {"role": "Warehouse/Fulfillment Associate", "data_scope": "metro", "metro_p25": 34396.0, "metro_p50": 40560.0, "metro_p75": 43680.0, "metro_trend_direction": "down", "metro_trend_magnitude": "moderate", "national_p50": 38000.0, "national_trend_direction": "stable", "national_trend_magnitude": "stable"}, {"role": "CDL Truck Driver", "data_scope": "metro", "metro_p25": 58138.0, "metro_p50": 74785.2, "metro_p75": 84000.0, "metro_trend_direction": "stable", "metro_trend_magnitude": "stable", "national_p50": 78000.0, "national_trend_direction": "stable", "national_trend_magnitude": "stable"}, {"role": "Delivery Driver", "data_scope": "metro", "metro_p25": 33918.75, "metro_p50": 38282.0, "metro_p75": 43680.0, "metro_trend_direction": "stable", "metro_trend_magnitude": "stable", "national_p50": 34344.0, "national_trend_direction": "stable", "national_trend_magnitude": "stable"}, {"role": "Construction Laborer", "data_scope": "metro", "metro_p25": 36948.25, "metro_p50": 46800.0, "metro_p75": 50117.0, "metro_trend_direction": "up", "metro_trend_magnitude": "moderate", "national_p50": 40560.0, "national_trend_direction": "stable", "national_trend_magnitude": "stable"}, {"role": "Electrician", "data_scope": "metro", "metro_p25": 58483.0, "metro_p50": 76030.0, "metro_p75": 83200.0, "metro_trend_direction": "up", "metro_trend_magnitude": "significant", "national_p50": 71404.0, "national_trend_direction": "up", "national_trend_magnitude": "significant"}, {"role": "Manufacturing Production Worker/Assembler", "data_scope": "metro", "metro_p25": 33300.5, "metro_p50": 38027.0, "metro_p75": 42328.0, "metro_trend_direction": "down", "metro_trend_magnitude": "significant", "national_p50": 39520.0, "national_trend_direction": "stable", "national_trend_magnitude": "stable"}, {"role": "Customer Service Representative", "data_scope": "metro", "metro_p25": 34829.25, "metro_p50": 39643.0, "metro_p75": 44428.0, "metro_trend_direction": "down", "metro_trend_magnitude": "moderate", "national_p50": 39520.0, "national_trend_direction": "stable", "national_trend_magnitude": "stable"}, {"role": "Food Service Worker", "data_scope": "metro", "metro_p25": 32608.25, "metro_p50": 40713.2, "metro_p75": 42910.0, "metro_trend_direction": "stable", "metro_trend_magnitude": "stable", "national_p50": 33756.2, "national_trend_direction": "stable", "national_trend_magnitude": "stable"}, {"role": "Certified Nursing Assistant / Home Health Aide", "data_scope": "metro", "metro_p25": 39914.0, "metro_p50": 47717.0, "metro_p75": 51584.0, "metro_trend_direction": "stable", "metro_trend_magnitude": "stable", "national_p50": 41106.0, "national_trend_direction": "stable", "national_trend_magnitude": "stable"}, {"role": "Administrative Assistant/Office Clerk", "data_scope": "metro", "metro_p25": 35958.5, "metro_p50": 49920.0, "metro_p75": 56280.0, "metro_trend_direction": "down", "metro_trend_magnitude": "moderate", "national_p50": 43680.0, "national_trend_direction": "up", "national_trend_magnitude": "moderate"}, {"role": "HVAC Technician", "data_scope": "metro", "metro_p25": 62215.0, "metro_p50": 73452.0, "metro_p75": 80888.0, "metro_trend_direction": "stable", "metro_trend_magnitude": "stable", "national_p50": 70720.0, "national_trend_direction": "up", "national_trend_magnitude": "moderate"}, {"role": "Registered Nurse", "data_scope": "metro", "metro_p25": 89356.0, "metro_p50": 110539.6, "metro_p75": 120829.75, "metro_trend_direction": "up", "metro_trend_magnitude": "significant", "national_p50": 102581.0, "national_trend_direction": "up", "national_trend_magnitude": "significant"}, {"role": "Software Engineer", "data_scope": "metro", "metro_p25": 122583.0, "metro_p50": 159500.0, "metro_p75": 177157.0, "metro_trend_direction": "stable", "metro_trend_magnitude": "stable", "national_p50": 153652.0, "national_trend_direction": "stable", "national_trend_magnitude": "stable"}, {"role": "Data Engineer", "data_scope": "metro", "metro_p25": 99540.0, "metro_p50": 140757.8, "metro_p75": 158888.0, "metro_trend_direction": "stable", "metro_trend_magnitude": "stable", "national_p50": 139500.0, "national_trend_direction": "up", "national_trend_magnitude": "moderate"}, {"role": "Accountant", "data_scope": "metro", "metro_p25": 60127.0, "metro_p50": 72500.0, "metro_p75": 80926.0, "metro_trend_direction": "up", "metro_trend_magnitude": "significant", "national_p50": 72182.0, "national_trend_direction": "up", "national_trend_magnitude": "moderate"}, {"role": "Financial Analyst", "data_scope": "metro", "metro_p25": 79017.75, "metro_p50": 101308.6, "metro_p75": 110000.0, "metro_trend_direction": "up", "metro_trend_magnitude": "moderate", "national_p50": 94782.0, "national_trend_direction": "stable", "national_trend_magnitude": "stable"}, {"role": "HR Generalist/Manager", "data_scope": "metro", "metro_p25": 52500.0, "metro_p50": 83225.6, "metro_p75": 89802.0, "metro_trend_direction": "up", "metro_trend_magnitude": "significant", "national_p50": 75000.0, "national_trend_direction": "up", "national_trend_magnitude": "significant"}, {"role": "Marketing Specialist", "data_scope": "metro", "metro_p25": 44735.0, "metro_p50": 60468.0, "metro_p75": 73869.0, "metro_trend_direction": "up", "metro_trend_magnitude": "moderate", "national_p50": 62354.4, "national_trend_direction": "up", "national_trend_magnitude": "moderate"}, {"role": "Operations Manager", "data_scope": "state_rollup", "metro_p25": 79388.5, "metro_p50": 100489.0, "metro_p75": 105250.0, "metro_trend_direction": "down", "metro_trend_magnitude": "significant", "national_p50": 85216.0, "national_trend_direction": "stable", "national_trend_magnitude": "stable"}, {"role": "Elementary/Secondary School Teacher", "data_scope": "metro", "metro_p25": 48850.0, "metro_p50": 62545.6, "metro_p75": 68596.5, "metro_trend_direction": "up", "metro_trend_magnitude": "significant", "national_p50": 56731.0, "national_trend_direction": "up", "national_trend_magnitude": "significant"}, {"role": "Account Manager", "data_scope": "metro", "metro_p25": 64661.25, "metro_p50": 100000.0, "metro_p75": 121980.0, "metro_trend_direction": "up", "metro_trend_magnitude": "significant", "national_p50": 92749.0, "national_trend_direction": "up", "national_trend_magnitude": "significant"}, {"role": "Warehouse Manager", "data_scope": "state_rollup", "metro_p25": 51506.0, "metro_p50": 75000.0, "metro_p75": 80000.0, "metro_trend_direction": "up", "metro_trend_magnitude": "significant", "national_p50": 75000.0, "national_trend_direction": "stable", "national_trend_magnitude": "stable"}, {"role": "Business Analyst", "data_scope": "metro", "metro_p25": 84740.0, "metro_p50": 101109.6, "metro_p75": 111955.0, "metro_trend_direction": "up", "metro_trend_magnitude": "significant", "national_p50": 98279.0, "national_trend_direction": "up", "national_trend_magnitude": "moderate"}], "industry_snapshot": [{"sector": "Construction", "median_pay": 92380.0, "pay_trend_direction": "up", "pay_trend_magnitude": "significant", "postings_trend_direction": "up", "postings_trend_magnitude": "significant"}, {"sector": "Manufacturing", "median_pay": 119891.0, "pay_trend_direction": "up", "pay_trend_magnitude": "significant", "postings_trend_direction": "up", "postings_trend_magnitude": "significant"}, {"sector": "Retail Trade", "median_pay": 109421.0, "pay_trend_direction": "up", "pay_trend_magnitude": "significant", "postings_trend_direction": "up", "postings_trend_magnitude": "significant"}, {"sector": "Transportation, Warehousing & Utilities", "median_pay": 72884.0, "pay_trend_direction": "down", "pay_trend_magnitude": "moderate", "postings_trend_direction": "up", "postings_trend_magnitude": "significant"}, {"sector": "Information", "median_pay": 139398.0, "pay_trend_direction": "up", "pay_trend_magnitude": "significant", "postings_trend_direction": "up", "postings_trend_magnitude": "significant"}, {"sector": "Financial Activities", "median_pay": 109297.0, "pay_trend_direction": "up", "pay_trend_magnitude": "significant", "postings_trend_direction": "up", "postings_trend_magnitude": "significant"}, {"sector": "Professional & Business Services", "median_pay": 101929.0, "pay_trend_direction": "up", "pay_trend_magnitude": "moderate", "postings_trend_direction": "up", "postings_trend_magnitude": "significant"}, {"sector": "Education & Health Services", "median_pay": 81658.0, "pay_trend_direction": "up", "pay_trend_magnitude": "moderate", "postings_trend_direction": "up", "postings_trend_magnitude": "significant"}, {"sector": "Leisure & Hospitality", "median_pay": 42640.0, "pay_trend_direction": "up", "pay_trend_magnitude": "moderate", "postings_trend_direction": "up", "postings_trend_magnitude": "significant"}, {"sector": "Government", "median_pay": 77219.0, "pay_trend_direction": "up", "pay_trend_magnitude": "significant", "postings_trend_direction": "up", "postings_trend_magnitude": "significant"}], "citations": [], "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": "October 2026", "files": {"html": "olympia-wa-msa/metro-job-market/2026-09.html", "pdf": "olympia-wa-msa/metro-job-market/2026-09.pdf", "sources_html": "olympia-wa-msa/metro-job-market/2026-09.sources.html"}, "published_at": "2026-10-09T14:34:20.044127+00:00", "report_html_url": "https://reports.wagescape.com/archive/v1/editions/olympia-wa-msa/metro-job-market/2026-09.html", "report_pdf_url": "https://reports.wagescape.com/archive/v1/editions/olympia-wa-msa/metro-job-market/2026-09.pdf"}