Sources & References
Metro Job Market Pulse · Washington-Arlington-Alexandria, DC-VA-MD-WV 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 payrolls added just 29,000 jobs in September with downward revisions
Bureau of Labor Statistics — National nonfarm payroll employment report
This Month's Takeaways
Maryland professional/scientific/technical services down 11,500 jobs since Jan 2025
Maryland Department of Labor — State industry employment data
Local Economic Conditions
Metro lost 103,900 jobs Jan 2025-Jan 2026, a 3.1% decline
Bureau of Labor Statistics — Metro area employment and unemployment data
DC minimum wage rose to $18.40/hour July 1, 2026
DC Department of Employment Services — DC minimum wage schedule update
Looking Ahead
Maryland labor force participation fell to 63.7%, a 10-year low
Bureau of Labor Statistics — State labor force participation data
81.9% of DC/MD/VA WARN-affected workers fell within Baltimore or DC MSAs
Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond — Regional WARN Act notice analysis
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