{"schema_version": 1, "id": "williamsport-pa-msa/restaurant-industry/2026-09", "product": "Labor Market Pulse", "metro": {"geography_id": 536, "label": "Williamsport, PA MSA", "slug": "williamsport-pa-msa"}, "focus_area": {"key": "restaurant_industry", "slug": "restaurant-industry", "label": "Restaurant Industry"}, "period": "2026-09", "public_after": "2026-09-01", "frozen_at": "2026-10-09T13:36:57.036775+00:00", "headline": "Williamsport bucks the national restaurant hiring cooldown.", "headline_summary": "Metro unemployment at 3.8% and manufacturing job growth of 2.7% are keeping local restaurant management pay climbing even as national accommodation and food service job openings fell from 916,000 to 673,000.", "key_indicators": [{"label": "Williamsport metro unemployment", "value": "3.8%", "context": "Down from 4.5% in March 2026"}, {"label": "National food service job openings", "value": "673,000", "context": "Down from 916,000 in January 2026"}, {"label": "Metro manufacturing job growth", "value": "2.7% YoY", "context": "Competes directly for hourly labor pool"}, {"label": "PA minimum/tipped wage", "value": "$7.25 / $2.83", "context": "Frozen since 2009; H.B. 2189 stalled in Senate"}], "takeaways": [{"headline": "Local manager pay is pulling away from the national pattern.", "body": "Assistant Restaurant Manager and Shift Manager advertised pay are both up significantly in Williamsport while national figures hold stable or decline, suggesting operators here are bidding up supervisory roles against a tight 3.8% metro jobless rate rather than following national softening."}, {"headline": "Server pay is falling locally even as the role stays hardest to staff.", "body": "Metro median Server pay dropped to $29,640, well below the $35,012 national figure, even as food service employment nationally has grown fast enough to outpace wage gains \u2014 a gap that may widen turnover risk in guest-facing roles if tip income doesn't close the difference."}, {"headline": "National hiring slowdown hasn't reached this labor pool yet.", "body": "Accommodation and food services job openings fell nationally from 916,000 to 673,000 by July, easing competition for workers in many metros, but Williamsport's own unemployment rate has been falling independently, meaning local operators may not feel that national relief."}, {"headline": "Line Cook and Crew pay gains suggest BOH wage compression is narrowing.", "body": "Both roles show moderate upward movement locally while national figures sit flat, consistent with manufacturing's 2.7% job growth drawing from the same hourly labor pool and forcing kitchens to bid competitively for entry-level and prep talent."}], "local_conditions": "Williamsport MSA unemployment stood at 3.8% in July (latest available), down from 4.5% in March, with manufacturing adding jobs at a 2.7% year-over-year clip and tightening the broader regional labor pool that restaurants compete against for hourly talent.", "implications": "National signals of cooling restaurant labor demand \u2014 job openings in accommodation and food services fell from 916,000 to 673,000 between January and July \u2014 have not clearly reached Williamsport, where a sub-4% metro jobless rate and manufacturing wage competition keep FOH and BOH recruiting difficult despite the national thaw. Pennsylvania's frozen $7.25 minimum and $2.83 tipped wage limit statutory labor cost pressure but do nothing to solve recruitment difficulty in a tight local market, meaning retention economics increasingly outweigh statutory wage floors in this metro's calculus. Consider reviewing whether advertised pay for Shift Manager and Assistant Restaurant Manager roles \u2014 both showing significant local increases \u2014 reflects a deliberate bet on promoting from within rather than external hiring.", "looking_ahead": [{"category": "Expected", "body": "September metro-level unemployment and payroll data release October 27; watch whether Williamsport's unemployment rate holds near 3.8% or reverses toward the 4.5% seen in March, which would signal real labor supply loosening for restaurant hiring."}, {"category": "Emerging pressure point", "body": "Manufacturing's 2.7% year-over-year job growth in the metro continues competing directly with restaurants for entry-level and shift-supervisory labor; sustained manufacturing strength may keep pushing BOH and shift-management pay upward regardless of national restaurant trends."}, {"category": "Worth watching", "body": "Pennsylvania's House-passed minimum wage bill (H.B. 2189) remains stalled in the Senate; any movement would directly affect Server and Crew wage floors statewide, though Williamsport operators already pay well above $7.25 in practice."}, {"category": "Potential inflection point", "body": "National food service job openings have fallen for seven straight months; if that softening finally reaches rural Pennsylvania metros, expect downward pressure on Crew and Server advertised pay that hasn't yet materialized locally."}], "roles": [{"role": "Assistant Restaurant Manager", "data_scope": "metro", "metro_p25": 28588.0, "metro_p50": 40784.2, "metro_p75": 42120.0, "metro_trend_direction": "up", "metro_trend_magnitude": "significant", "national_p50": 39000.0, "national_trend_direction": "down", "national_trend_magnitude": "moderate"}, {"role": "Catering Manager", "data_scope": "state_rollup", "metro_p25": 39158.5, "metro_p50": 52337.0, "metro_p75": 58786.5, "metro_trend_direction": "down", "metro_trend_magnitude": "moderate", "national_p50": 50960.0, "national_trend_direction": "stable", "national_trend_magnitude": "stable"}, {"role": "Crew", "data_scope": "metro", "metro_p25": 25902.75, "metro_p50": 27622.0, "metro_p75": 32240.0, "metro_trend_direction": "up", "metro_trend_magnitude": "moderate", "national_p50": 29839.0, "national_trend_direction": "stable", "national_trend_magnitude": "stable"}, {"role": "Line Cook", "data_scope": "metro", "metro_p25": 30160.0, "metro_p50": 34320.0, "metro_p75": 35654.0, "metro_trend_direction": "up", "metro_trend_magnitude": "moderate", "national_p50": 36826.0, "national_trend_direction": "stable", "national_trend_magnitude": "stable"}, {"role": "Restaurant Manager/General Manager", "data_scope": "metro", "metro_p25": 47500.0, "metro_p50": 56793.0, "metro_p75": 59479.5, "metro_trend_direction": "down", "metro_trend_magnitude": "moderate", "national_p50": 59618.0, "national_trend_direction": "down", "national_trend_magnitude": "moderate"}, {"role": "Server", "data_scope": "metro", "metro_p25": 25908.0, "metro_p50": 29640.2, "metro_p75": 31984.0, "metro_trend_direction": "down", "metro_trend_magnitude": "moderate", "national_p50": 35012.0, "national_trend_direction": "stable", "national_trend_magnitude": "stable"}, {"role": "Shift Manager", "data_scope": "metro", "metro_p25": 28618.0, "metro_p50": 33280.0, "metro_p75": 35230.0, "metro_trend_direction": "up", "metro_trend_magnitude": "significant", "national_p50": 32731.0, "national_trend_direction": "stable", "national_trend_magnitude": "stable"}], "industry_snapshot": [], "citations": [], "methodology": "Advertised pay from active employer job postings, not survey data. WageScape's median is calibrated to correct for spurious low-value postings: distribution analysis shows roughly the lowest 10% of raw values are erroneous entries, so the reported median is the 60th percentile of raw advertised pay.", "edition_label": "October 2026", "files": {"html": "williamsport-pa-msa/restaurant-industry/2026-09.html", "pdf": "williamsport-pa-msa/restaurant-industry/2026-09.pdf"}, "published_at": "2026-10-09T14:38:01.473657+00:00", "report_html_url": "https://reports.wagescape.com/archive/v1/editions/williamsport-pa-msa/restaurant-industry/2026-09.html", "report_pdf_url": "https://reports.wagescape.com/archive/v1/editions/williamsport-pa-msa/restaurant-industry/2026-09.pdf"}