Recent federal and regional data portray a Memphis labor market that is adding higher pay even as overall job growth has slowed and occasionally turned negative. The latest figures also confirm just how central transportation and logistics work has become to the regional economy.
Metro employment is roughly flat, with recent monthly losses
Household-survey employment in the Memphis, TN–MS–AR metropolitan statistical area has been moving sideways in 2026, with small month‑to‑month declines. The Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis’ FRED series for “Employed Persons in Memphis, TN‑MS‑AR (MSA)” (LAUMT473282000000005) shows the number of employed residents slipping from 604,398 in May 2026 to 596,036 in June 2026.[[f1_1]] Those data are reported in persons, not seasonally adjusted, and are available monthly.[[f1_2]][[f1_3]]
The Bureau of Labor Statistics’ Economic Summary for the Memphis MSA reports essentially the same pattern in rounded thousands. It lists employment at 604.4 thousand in February 2026, 603.1 thousand in March, 601.7 thousand in April, 599.5 thousand in May, and a preliminary 596.0 thousand in June 2026.[[f3_1]] Converting between the FRED counts and the BLS summary confirms that these are two presentations of the same underlying series.
Over a longer window, USAFacts’ summary of BLS state and local employment data for the Memphis area indicates the region lost 1,300 jobs in June 2026 and has averaged about 153 net new jobs per month over the prior five years.[[f5_0]][[f5_2]] Over that July 2021–June 2026 period, the Memphis area gained jobs in 31 out of 60 months, meaning nearly half of the months saw net job losses.[[f5_3]] Taken together, the official series and the derived monthly change estimates point to a labor market that is not contracting sharply but has not delivered consistent net gains either.
Wages in the metro trail the national average but show clear structure by occupation
On pay, the most recent occupational data highlight a meaningful gap between Memphis and national averages, alongside substantial variation by job type. The Bureau of Labor Statistics reports that workers in the Memphis MSA had an average (mean) hourly wage of $28.96 in May 2025, compared with a nationwide average of $33.54.[[f4_0]] That snapshot places local mean pay below the U.S. mean, but does not by itself indicate trend direction.
The same release shows a clear wage ladder across occupational groups. Higher‑paying major groups in the Memphis area include management at $65.54 per hour, legal occupations at $55.61, and healthcare practitioners and technical occupations at $47.14.[[f4_1]] Lower‑paying groups include food preparation and serving related occupations at $15.30 per hour, personal care and service at $17.06, and building and grounds cleaning and maintenance at $17.43.[[f4_1]] These numbers underline how much local earnings depend on occupational mix as well as aggregate demand for labor.
Transportation and logistics are unusually central to Memphis employment
Transportation and logistics work remains a defining feature of the Memphis economy. According to a BLS occupational employment and wage release, Memphis had 104,600 jobs in transportation and material moving occupations, accounting for 17.1% of local area employment.[[f4_2]] Nationally, this occupational group makes up 8.8% of employment, so the local share is nearly double the U.S. average.[[f4_2]]
Pay for these transportation and material moving jobs is roughly in line with national levels. The average hourly wage for the group in Memphis is reported at $23.81, compared with $23.96 nationally.[[f4_2]] That suggests the region’s specialization shows up more clearly in headcounts and employment shares than in a wage premium for the group as a whole.
Within transportation and material moving, some specific occupations are far more concentrated locally than in the country overall. The BLS notes that aircraft service attendants are employed at 3.56 times the national rate in Memphis, and industrial truck and tractor operators at 2.61 times the U.S. average.[[f4_3]] Those location quotients point to clusters where local demand is particularly strong.
This occupational picture lines up with earlier macro‑level data for the region. A Greater Memphis Chamber market report notes that supply chain and logistics industries in the region grew a total of 13% through 2021.[[f8_3]] It also attributes a $758 million year‑over‑year increase in transportation and warehousing and a $529 million increase in advanced manufacturing as key drivers of a 6.2% regional growth rate in 2021, compared with 5.5% real GDP growth nationally.[[f8_2]] While those figures are not directly comparable to the 2025–2026 labor data, they reinforce transportation, warehousing, and related activity as central to the regional economy.
County‑level covered employment and wages across the metro
Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages (QCEW) data give a complementary “place of work” view for counties that make up the Memphis region. In 2024, Shelby County, Tennessee—the core county that includes the city of Memphis—had 482,470 covered jobs on an annual‑average basis, spread across 24,468 business establishments.[[qcew_47157_place_of_work_employment]][[qcew_47157_establishments]] The average weekly wage for those covered jobs was $1,375 in 2024, up from $1,291 in 2022 and $1,349 in 2023.[[qcew_47157_average_weekly_wage]]
Nearby counties that are functionally part of the labor shed show smaller job bases and generally lower average wages:
- DeSoto County, Mississippi (just south of Memphis) recorded 72,666 covered jobs in 2024 across 3,754 establishments, with an average weekly wage of $879.[[qcew_28033_place_of_work_employment]][[qcew_28033_establishments]][[qcew_28033_average_weekly_wage]]
- Crittenden County, Arkansas (to the west) had 16,197 covered jobs in 2024 at 1,096 establishments, with an average weekly wage of $919.[[qcew_05035_place_of_work_employment]][[qcew_05035_establishments]][[qcew_05035_average_weekly_wage]]
- Tipton County, Tennessee, north of Shelby, reported 11,848 covered jobs at 962 establishments, with an average weekly wage of $967.[[qcew_47167_place_of_work_employment]][[qcew_47167_establishments]][[qcew_47167_average_weekly_wage]]
- Fayette County, Tennessee, east of Shelby, had 8,093 covered jobs in 2024 across 823 establishments and an average weekly wage of $1,098.[[qcew_47047_place_of_work_employment]][[qcew_47047_establishments]][[qcew_47047_average_weekly_wage]]
- Marshall County, Mississippi had 11,291 covered jobs at 566 establishments, with an average weekly wage of $935.[[qcew_28093_place_of_work_employment]][[qcew_28093_establishments]][[qcew_28093_average_weekly_wage]]
- Tunica County, Mississippi recorded 5,799 covered jobs at 270 establishments, with an average weekly wage of $802.[[qcew_28143_place_of_work_employment]][[qcew_28143_establishments]][[qcew_28143_average_weekly_wage]]
These QCEW data show Shelby County as the wage and employment anchor of the region, with outlying counties offering smaller job bases and, in most cases, lower average weekly pay. Fayette County is a partial exception on wages, with a 2024 average weekly wage of $1,098 that exceeds several neighboring counties but still trails Shelby’s $1,375.[[qcew_47047_average_weekly_wage]][[qcew_47157_average_weekly_wage]]
Project announcements and earlier expansion
Local development announcements provide some context for how firms are responding to the region’s labor and logistics profile, though these are forward‑looking commitments rather than realized employment. A Greater Memphis Chamber report characterizes 2021 as a “record year” for economic development, with more than 9,000 announced jobs.[[f8_0]] The same report states that the region’s Gross Regional Product grew by $4.4 billion in 2021.[[f8_1]] Those figures describe a strong expansion year, but the sources do not provide a direct measure of how many of those jobs have since materialized.
More recently, specific company‑level projects have been publicized. One announcement describes a transportation company, JNJ Express, planning to invest $83.6 million to expand its operations in Memphis and create 610 new jobs over five years as it establishes a new headquarters and operations campus in Southeast Memphis.[[f7_0]][[f7_1]] The same report notes that JNJ will redevelop and occupy a former retail site at 5000 American Way and consolidate corporate functions such as human relations, accounting, information technology, marketing and other headquarters activities there.[[f7_2]][[f7_3]]
In a separate, unidentified‑company announcement captured in a local news segment, a firm is described as investing $157 million in a major expansion in Memphis that is expected to create 240 new jobs, following its prior selection of Memphis for its U.S. production facility in 2019.[[f9_0]][[f9_3]] The clip does not identify the company by name in the extracted text, so the specific sector is not clear from this evidence alone.
These announcements align qualitatively with the region’s logistics and production strengths documented in the Chamber report and BLS occupational data, but they remain planned or in‑process expansions. The evidence here does not quantify how much of the announced hiring has already been completed or how the net effect compares to the metro’s recent average gain of 153 jobs per month over five years.[[f5_2]]
How much can be inferred, and what remains uncertain
The available data allow several grounded observations: metro employment has been roughly flat with recent monthly declines; the region’s mean pay is below the U.S. average but rises sharply in higher‑skill occupations; and transportation and logistics work makes up a far larger share of local employment than it does nationally.[[f1_1]][[f3_1]][[f4_0]][[f4_1]][[f4_2]][[f4_3]] County‑level QCEW figures further show Shelby County as the dominant employment and wage center within a multi‑state metro, with surrounding counties playing secondary roles.[[qcew_47157_place_of_work_employment]][[qcew_28033_place_of_work_employment]][[qcew_05035_place_of_work_employment]]
At the same time, the evidence set has limits. It does not include long time‑series on wages or county‑level unemployment rates, so it cannot support firm claims about multi‑year wage acceleration or comparative joblessness by sub‑county geography. The development announcements document planned investment and job creation but do not provide audited follow‑up on delivery. And while the Chamber report highlights strong 2021 growth, it does not, by itself, establish that those conditions persisted into 2025–2026.
For property and regional investors, the most reliable inferences from this evidence are that Memphis remains a logistics‑dense labor market with sizable but not rapidly expanding employment, a clear wage hierarchy by occupation, and an ongoing pipeline of logistics‑ and production‑oriented projects whose realized impact will need to be tracked against the official labor data.
