Sources & References
Metro Job Market Pulse · Rochester, MN 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
Olmsted County posted 15.3% year-over-year average weekly wage growth
U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics — County-level wage data for Minnesota's largest counties
Rochester metro unemployment rate at 3.7% (preliminary) in August 2026
Minnesota DEED / KROC-AM News — Local labor market reporting
Minnesota labor force participation fell to 66.9% in August 2026
Minnesota DEED — Statewide labor force participation data
This Month's Takeaways
National wage growth of 3.0% fell short of 3.4% inflation rate
Bureau of Labor Statistics — National Employment Situation Report, September 2026
Open Threads in the Data
DEED commissioner linked labor supply decline to aging population and immigration enforcement
Minnesota DEED Commissioner Matt Varilek — Public statement on statewide labor force trends
Looking Ahead
Minnesota WARN notice activity fell 69% in affected workers versus 2025
Minnesota DEED WARN Act filings — Statewide layoff notice tracking, 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