Set a local hiring baseline

You are about to post a role and you want to know what the market pays before you name a number.

Who this is for

Written for Small employers, staffing firms, HR consultants. You bring the commercial question; the published record behind it comes back with the answer, and you can see where each figure came from.

What to bring

Have these to hand before you paste the prompt. Anything you leave out should be asked for rather than guessed at.

The occupation, as a title or a standard code
The location you will hire in
Whether the role is full time, part time or contract

Try this prompt

Paste this where you connected HARBOR Port and replace the bracketed parts. It asks for sources and periods on purpose: that is what makes the answer checkable.

I need to hire [occupation] near [geography]. Find the latest wage measures the source publishes, state the exact labour-market area and year they cover, and set them against the state employment picture. Say clearly that this is not a salary offer and tell me what local information would change the number.

Then ask a narrower question. These are the ones people ask next.

How has the wage for this occupation moved over the published series.

Which nearby labour-market areas pay more, and by how much.

What the answer looks like

The shape below is the point of the workflow. If a response arrives without the periods and the source behind each number, ask for them before you use it.

The wage measures the source actually provides, with the area and year
State employment context for the same period
The geography mismatch stated where one exists
What the data cannot say: your specific role, seniority or benefits

Limits to keep in view

Wage data is published for labour-market areas, which do not line up with counties or with a service area. When the geography does not match, the number is omitted rather than stretched.

Census, BEA and BLS series are published on different calendars and for different periods. Every figure carries the period and geography that were actually returned, not the one that was asked for.

Not answered by this data:

Your revenue, customers, bookings, pipeline or churn
Inventory, capacity, staffing rosters or payroll
Your actual utility bills, fuel spend or supplier quotes
Business credit, insurance premiums, or lending decisions
Permit, licence or certification status
A local forecast, a hazard estimate, or a legal opinion

Where the numbers come from

The answer is built from the published sources below. Each one keeps its own geography, period and definitions, and the answer states which was used.

BLS occupational employment and wage statistics
BLS employment by industry
BLS state unemployment

The exact names, and where to read the detail

bls

bls_wages_by_occupation_geo
bls_employment_by_industry
bls_state_unemployment_rate

Scoped to what your plan reaches, and to the sources each workflow names. Reviewing the catalogue first is the cheap way to decide whether this covers your question: source catalogue.