Sources & References
Metro Job Market Pulse · Prescott, AZ 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
Arizona unemployment at 4.9% for third consecutive month, participation down 2.2 pts YoY
Common Sense Institute / Arizona OEO — Statewide labor market trend analysis
This Month's Takeaways
National wage growth at 3.0% vs 3.4% inflation, lowest since May 2021
Bureau of Labor Statistics — National average hourly earnings and CPI comparison
Arizona health care added 13,600 jobs year-over-year
Arizona Office of Economic Opportunity — Statewide sector-level job growth data
Local Economic Conditions
Prescott MSA unemployment rate at 5.8% in August 2026 (preliminary)
Bureau of Labor Statistics / Local Area Unemployment Statistics — Preliminary metro-level unemployment estimate
Yavapai County labor force participation ~12 points below state average
Arizona Office of Economic Opportunity — County-level labor force participation comparison
Looking Ahead
Arizona certified first Workforce Pell Grant training programs for healthcare, transportation
Arizona Office of Economic Opportunity — State workforce development program announcement
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