Sources & References
Metro Job Market Pulse · TX NONMETROPOLITAN AREA · 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
This Month's Takeaways
Texas construction grew 5.1% year-over-year, 2.1 points above national pace
Texas Workforce Commission — State industry employment data
47.5% of manufacturers cite lack of available applicants as hiring barrier
Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas — Texas manufacturing outlook survey
Local Economic Conditions
County unemployment ranges from 1.2% in Loving County to 9.4% in Starr County
Texas Workforce Commission — September 2026 county-level labor market data
Supply-demand ratio of 1.2 unemployed per advertised vacancy statewide
Texas Workforce Commission Labor Market Review — August 2026 labor market review
Open Threads in the Data
Texas private wages rose 3.9% year-over-year as of September
Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas — Dallas Fed regional wage indicators
Looking Ahead
Panhandle region unemployment rose from 3.2% to 3.5% in May 2026
Texas Workforce Commission — Panhandle Workforce Development Area report
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