Know where the workforce is going before you hire.
Labor market, staffing industry and industry intelligence sourced from BLS, the Federal Reserve, state agencies and company filings. Every number carries its date and its source. Updated on release day. Written for employers and workers in manufacturing, automotive, aerospace, AI and technology, food and logistics.
Four numbers we refresh the morning the data lands.
National figures unless the panel says otherwise. Each tracker names the release, the reference period and the next update date. Monthly and annual rates are labeled; nothing is annualized without saying so.
The market is short of people, not short of jobs.
- Unemployment 4.1 percent in August 2026, unchanged on the month and down from 4.5 percent in November 2025 (BLS, seasonally adjusted).
- Payrolls rose 162,000 against an average of 31,000 a month over the prior 12 months (BLS Employment Situation, September 4, 2026).
- Job openings 7.271 million in July 2026, a 4.4 percent rate; 0.95 unemployed people per opening (BLS JOLTS, September 1, 2026).
- Layoffs and discharges 1.0 percent of employment; quits 1.9 percent, both monthly rates (BLS JOLTS, July 2026).
- Average hourly earnings up 3.1 percent over the year against CPI of 3.4 percent; real earnings down 0.3 percent (BLS, August 2026).
Eight straight monthly gains, led by industrial work.
- Temporary help services employment up 6,800 in August and up 36,200 (1.5 percent) over the year; higher every month of 2026 (BLS CES series CES6056132001, seasonally adjusted).
- Temp help is 1.58 percent of nonfarm employment, versus about 2.0 percent at the March 2022 peak (computed from BLS Table B1; FRED ratio series).
- ASA Staffing Index four week moving average 92 for the week of August 10 to 16, 2026; temp and contract employment 5.5 percent above the same week of 2025 (ASA, August 25, 2026).
- SIA raised its 2026 US staffing revenue forecast to $183.1 billion, up 2.4 percent, from $180.2 billion in March (SIA, September 2026 update).
The lowest August since 2022. Cuts are in food and consumer goods plants.
- Year to date announced cuts 529,914 through August 2026, down 41 percent from 892,362 a year earlier (Challenger, Gray and Christmas, September 2, 2026).
- AI cited for 116,175 cuts year to date, about 22 percent; in August AI fell to the fourth most cited reason at 3,462 (Challenger).
- Transportation cuts up 271 percent year to date; warehousing cuts down 55 percent; government cuts down 92 percent (Challenger).
- August was led by consumer products (10,057) and food (7,982), driven by plant restructurings (Challenger).
- Announced cuts are not realized layoffs. The BLS layoffs and discharges rate stayed at 1.0 percent in July (BLS JOLTS).
Where hiring is moving: jobs added over the year in the five markets we publish research for.
| State | Jobs added, 12 months | Unemployment |
|---|---|---|
| Texas | +165,600 (+1.2 percent), largest gain in the nation | 4.5 percent |
| Florida | +41,000 (+0.4 percent) | 4.6 percent |
| South Carolina | +32,100 (+1.3 percent) | 4.2 percent |
| Michigan | +8,200 (+0.2 percent) | 4.9 percent |
| Georgia | down 15,700 (down 0.3 percent) | 3.3 percent |
National unemployment was 4.1 percent in July 2026. Georgia has the tightest labor market by unemployment and the weakest payroll count; Texas has the most jobs added and rising unemployment because its labor force is growing faster than hiring.
Source: BLS State Employment and Unemployment, July 2026, released Aug 21, 2026 (seasonally adjusted); BLS Economy at a Glance state pages. Next update BLS state release Fri Sept 18, 10:00 am ET Market research by stateSix industries. Three sourced facts each. Refreshed monthly.
The national picture for the industries where we place people. Each fact names its source and reference period. Where a figure is a forecast, an index or a survey, the card says so.
Plants are stretching crews, not adding heads.
- Motor vehicles and parts employment 962,800 in August 2026, down 4,500 on the month and flat over the year (BLS CES3133600101).
- Production workers averaged 45.6 hours a week in August, up from 42.6 a year earlier; overtime 6.5 hours a week in July 2026 (BLS CES).
- Sales ran at a 16.8 million annual pace in August, the sixth straight month above 16 million; hybrids took 15.7 percent of sales (Cox Automotive, Sept 2, 2026; NADA, Sept 9, 2026).
The fastest growing large manufacturing industry in the country.
- Aerospace product and parts manufacturing employment 594,500 in July 2026, up 26,000 or 4.6 percent over the year (BLS CES3133640001, preliminary).
- Boeing delivered 418 commercial airplanes January through August 2026, its best eight month total since 2018; total backlog a record $715 billion at June 30 (Forecast International, Sept 9, 2026; Boeing Q2 results, July 28, 2026).
- Industry attrition was nearly 15 percent in 2024, more than double the average of other US industries (AIA and McKinsey, June 2025).
AI demand is in postings and in data centers. It is not yet in layoffs.
- AI related terms appear in 6.3 percent of US job postings, nearly double the 3.3 percent peak of 2022 (Indeed Hiring Lab, Aug 24, 2026).
- BLS projects data scientist employment up 35 percent from 2025 to 2035 and industrial machinery mechanics up 14 percent (BLS Employment Projections, Aug 27, 2026).
- A record 7,481 megawatts of data centers were under construction in North America's primary markets at midyear 2026 with 1.4 percent vacancy (CBRE, Aug 27, 2026).
Headcount falling, pay rising, overtime a full hour above the factory average.
- Food manufacturing employment 1,764,600 in August 2026, down 20,400 or 1.1 percent over the year and the lowest since 2023 (BLS CES3231100001).
- Production and nonsupervisory pay $24.78 an hour, up 3.25 percent over the year, against $30.37 for all manufacturing production workers (BLS Table B8, August 2026).
- Overtime 4.2 hours a week in July 2026 versus 3.1 for all manufacturing; injury rate 3.3 per 100 workers in 2024 versus 2.7 for all manufacturing (BLS CES; BLS SOII).
Trucking is rehiring at the margin. Warehousing keeps shedding.
- Warehousing and storage employment 1,837,400 in August 2026, down 32,000 (1.7 percent) over the year; truck transportation 1,470,300, up 4,800 on the month for a third straight gain but 9,900 below a year ago (BLS Table B1).
- On highway diesel averaged $5.967 a gallon on September 7, 2026, up $2.20 from a year earlier (EIA weekly retail prices).
- US industrial vacancy fell to 6.5 percent in Q2 2026, the first decline since 2022, on 85.1 million square feet of absorption (CBRE Q2 2026).
Slow to fill, flooded with applicants, budgets flat.
- Median time to fill 40 days and 30 applicants per opening in August 2026 (iCIMS Workforce Report, Sept 10, 2026, 3.1 million users).
- US Net Employment Outlook for Q4 2026 is 36 percent, up 11 points from a year earlier (ManpowerGroup Employment Outlook Survey, Sept 8, 2026, 39,878 employers in 42 countries).
- 2027 salary budgets: 3.2 percent merit and 3.5 percent total, the fourth straight year of moderate increases (Marsh US Compensation Planning Survey, July 2026, 1,000 plus companies).
Seven articles. Every statistic dated and sourced.
Written by Kenneth Cuzelis, Owner of C3 Workforce. Each article opens with the answer, shows its numbers in a table, and ends with what the data means if you hire and what it means if you work.
Aerospace employment is up 4.6 percent. Here is who a 594,500 worker industry cannot find.
Boeing's best delivery pace since 2018, a record $715 billion backlog, a 15 percent attrition rate, and the roles that stay open the longest.
The AI jobs report, September 2026: 6.3 percent of postings, 35 percent projected growth, and a layoff reason that fell to fourth.
Where the AI jobs are, what they pay, what is short, and why the fastest growing AI jobs are trades jobs around data centers.
Plants are stretching crews, not hiring: auto overtime hits 6.5 hours a week.
Motor vehicle employment is flat at 962,800 while hours climb to 45.6 a week. What that means for temp to hire in supplier plants.
Michigan's $15.00 minimum wage and a $614 weekly unemployment benefit both arrive January 1, 2027.
What changes, what a claim now costs against a $9,000 taxable wage base, and who carries the claim when you use a staffing firm.
Food plants shed 20,400 jobs in a year while raising pay 3.25 percent.
Beef consolidation, a shrinking authorized labor supply, and why maintenance technicians are the hardest seat to fill.
Temporary help employment has risen every month of 2026. The recovery is industrial.
2,519,500 temp jobs, a 1.58 percent penetration rate, a raised SIA forecast, and why the ASA index and BLS disagree by four points.
162,000 jobs, 4.1 percent unemployment, and 0.95 unemployed people per opening.
The August jobs report, JOLTS, wages by sector, the Fed and diesel, and what to watch through the October 2 release.
One email on Friday. The week's numbers, sourced.
The ASA Staffing Index, weekly claims, any BLS release, Challenger when it lands, one industry note and next week's calendar. Written for people who hire and people who work. No pitch attached.
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Every number gets a grade before it gets published.
These pages are drafted from primary sources with AI assistance, then reviewed and edited by Kenneth Cuzelis before publication. Corrections are made in place and dated. Here are the rules.
- Monthly versus annual rates are labeled. A JOLTS quits rate is a monthly rate. A CPI figure is a 12 month change. We say which.
- Run rate is never blurred with revenue. A quarterly sales figure multiplied by four is a run rate and is called one. A forecast is called a forecast.
- Postings are not employment. Job posting indexes and AI skill counts measure demand. BLS payroll counts measure jobs. We do not swap one for the other.
- Seasonal adjustment is stated. National payroll figures are seasonally adjusted unless noted. Challenger counts and some state series are not.
- Surveys are named with their samples. Industry indexes from ASA, ManpowerGroup, iCIMS or Gallup are cited with the sample size and field dates, and they are not presented as interchangeable with federal data.
- Revisions are shown, not hidden. When BLS revises a prior month, the revision is stated. History is not silently edited.
- National on national pages. Trackers and industry pulse cards carry US figures. State figures live on the state tracker, on Markets and in articles that are explicitly about one state.
- Wage figures are market data for hiring managers. Medians from BLS are published on employer facing research pages as context for pay decisions, never as a promise of what a specific job pays.
Questions about a number, or a correction? Email info@c3workforce.com or call (734) 552-5731.
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