Sources & References
Metro Job Market Pulse · Wilmington, NC 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
NC labor force participation fell to 57.8%, down 1.6 points YoY
NC Department of Commerce / BLS — State labor force participation data, August 2026
Local Economic Conditions
Wilmington MSA unemployment at 3.6% in July 2026
Bureau of Labor Statistics / NC Commerce — Metro unemployment estimate, July 2026
New Hanover County led large NC counties in employment growth at 2.4%
Bureau of Labor Statistics — County employment news release, September 2, 2026
New Hanover County average weekly wage $1,347, up 4.6% YoY
Bureau of Labor Statistics — Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages, Q1 2026
Open Threads in the Data
National wage growth fell to 3.0% against 3.4% inflation
Bureau of Labor Statistics — September 2026 employment and inflation data
Looking Ahead
NC employers filed 61 WARN notices affecting 5,753 workers in 2026
NC Department of Commerce — WARN Act notice tracking, 2026 year-to-date
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