Sources & References
Metro Job Market Pulse · Waco, TX 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
This Month's Takeaways
Texas private hourly earnings up 3.9% year-over-year
Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas — Dallas Fed July 2026 wage indicators
Local Economic Conditions
Waco MSA unemployment at 4.2%, nonfarm payrolls flat in September
U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics — BLS metro area employment and unemployment statistics
Education/Health Services 27% of Waco employment, manufacturing down 5.8% YoY
Workforce Solutions for the Heart of Texas — Q1 2026 regional employment and wage report
Waco average weekly wage $1,213, down $49 quarter-over-quarter
Workforce Solutions for the Heart of Texas — Q1 2026 average weekly wage data
Looking Ahead
Texas manufacturing activity accelerated in September statewide
Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas — Dallas Fed Texas Manufacturing Outlook Survey
National wage growth at 3.0% vs 3.4% inflation, weakest since 2021
Bureau of Labor Statistics — National average hourly earnings and CPI data, 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