Sources & References
Metro Job Market Pulse · Rockford, IL 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
National unemployment rate steady at 4.1%
Bureau of Labor Statistics — National unemployment rate, August 2026
This Month's Takeaways
Winnebago County average weekly wage of $1,227, up 5.7% YoY
Bureau of Labor Statistics — County Employment and Wages (QCEW), Q1 2026
Local Economic Conditions
Rockford MSA unemployment rate and monthly job-loss trend
U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics / IDES — Rockford MSA preliminary unemployment and nonfarm payroll data, May 2026
Winnebago County -1.7% YoY employment change, largest in Illinois
Bureau of Labor Statistics — County Employment and Wages report, Q1 2026
Looking Ahead
Illinois statewide labor force contraction from 6.571M to 6.477M
Illinois Department of Employment Security — Statewide labor force data, March-August 2026
Illinois WARN notices: 91 filings, 16,782 workers year-to-date
Illinois Department of Employment Security — WARN Act notice tracking, year-to-date 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