Sources & References
Metro Job Market Pulse · Springfield, MA 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
Hampden County unemployment at 5.7%, highest in Massachusetts
Massachusetts Executive Office of Labor and Workforce Development — County-level unemployment data, August 2026
This Month's Takeaways
All seven Massachusetts MSAs lost jobs month-over-month in August 2026
Massachusetts Executive Office of Labor and Workforce Development — Statewide metro area employment report, August 2026
Smithfield Packaged Meats closed Springfield facility, ~200 jobs affected
WWLP — Local news report, February 10, 2026
Local Economic Conditions
Springfield MSA unemployment rate rose to 6.0% in July 2026
Massachusetts Executive Office of Labor and Workforce Development — Local area unemployment statistics, July 2026
Open Threads in the Data
Hampden County average weekly wage of $1,302 vs. national $1,654
Bureau of Labor Statistics — County Employment and Wages, Q1 2026
Looking Ahead
National wage growth slowed to 3.0% against 3.4% inflation
Bureau of Labor Statistics — National Employment Situation and CPI, 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