Sources & References
Metro Job Market Pulse · St. Joseph, MO-KS 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
Missouri unemployment rate at 3.2% in September, lowest since January 2000
Missouri Department of Labor — Missouri labor market data release, September 2026
Missouri job postings down 11.7% year-over-year in July 2026
Indeed Hiring Lab — State-level job postings index, Missouri
Local Economic Conditions
St. Joseph MSA unemployment rate at 4.2%, down from 3.1% in Dec 2025
Bureau of Labor Statistics — Local Area Unemployment Statistics, St. Joseph MO-KS MSA
Buchanan County average weekly wage of $1,238, highest among smaller MO counties
Bureau of Labor Statistics — County Employment and Wages (QCEW), Q4 2025
Looking Ahead
National payroll growth of 29,000 in September with wage growth at 3.0%
Bureau of Labor Statistics — Employment Situation Summary, September 2026
Missouri's natural population growth turned negative; 60% of gains from international migration
Missouri Department of Labor — State demographic and labor force analysis, 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