Sources & References
Metro Job Market Pulse · Roanoke, VA 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
Virginia labor force declined 68,000 since early 2025, participation at 62.8%
Virginia Employment Commission / UVA Weldon Cooper Center — August 2026 Virginia Jobs Day report and Cooper Center forecast
National average hourly earnings grew 3.0% annually vs 3.4% inflation
Bureau of Labor Statistics — September 2026 employment situation report wage and CPI comparison
Local Economic Conditions
Roanoke MSA gained 1,300 jobs reaching 168,300 total employment in June 2026
Virginia Works — Metro employment data reporting one of VA's largest quarterly metro job gains
Named-employer job commitments totaling ~1,326 positions across Roanoke region
Roanoke Rambler / WDBJ7 — Reporting on Ringana, Elbit, Munters, Integer facility expansions
Looking Ahead
Virginia recorded 10 WARN notices affecting 1,717 workers in past 90 days
Virginia Employment Commission WARN filings — September 2026 WARN notice tracking including Owens & Minor, Bechtel Power
National nonfarm payrolls added only 29,000 jobs in September, prior months revised down 60,000
Bureau of Labor Statistics — September 2026 employment situation summary
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