Sources & References
Metro Job Market Pulse · Parkersburg-Marietta-Vienna, WV-OH 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
This Month's Takeaways
West Virginia lost 1,800 net payroll jobs over trailing 12 months, ranks 45th nationally
Joint Economic Committee / Workforce WV — State payroll employment report, released September 18, 2026
National average hourly earnings grew 3.0% vs 3.4% inflation in September
Bureau of Labor Statistics — National wage growth and CPI comparison, September 2026
Local Economic Conditions
Wood County unemployment rate near 3.9-4.0% through July 2026
Bureau of Labor Statistics (Local Area Unemployment Statistics) — County-level unemployment data, most recent available
West Virginia labor force participation rate of 54.5%, lowest nationally
West Virginia Chamber of Commerce — State workforce participation analysis, 2026
Looking Ahead
BLS metro employment data for Parkersburg-Marietta-Vienna scheduled for October 20 release
Bureau of Labor Statistics — Scheduled release date for metro area employment report
National nonfarm payrolls added 29,000 in September, prior months revised down 60,000
Bureau of Labor Statistics — National employment situation report, September 2026
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