State of Cedar Rapids Labor Market [2026]

JobLeads data found that Cedar Rapids, Iowa, added around 10K new positions in Q1 2026, broadly in line with Q4 2025. The typical job ad closed in 19 days, while vacancies concentrated mostly in Management and Bio & Health, specialist roles accounted for roughly 80% of all open positions.

Around 10,000 new positions opened in Q1 2026, broadly flat from Q4 2025

Hiring in Cedar Rapids held steady at the start of the year, with Q1 2026 openings broadly matching the pace set in Q4 2025.

Employers in Cedar Rapids posted roughly 10,100 new positions in Q1 2026, up 6.7% from about 9,500 in Q4 2025. There’s been a steady climb running for a full year: postings have risen every single quarter since Q1 2025, when the total sat at just 5,372. The pace of growth has moderated slightly quarter over quarter, but the trend line is unambiguous. This is a labor market that's been expanding for four consecutive quarters, not one riding a single good quarter.

A typical job ad in Cedar Rapids closes in 19 days

The median Cedar Rapids job advert stayed live for 19 days in Q1 2026, matching the same period a year earlier and reversing a dip to 17 days in Q4 2025. That Q4 dip likely reflects the usual end-of-year hiring push, when employers move faster to close roles before the calendar turns.

The shaded band shows real spread underneath that median: half of all postings close somewhere between 7 and 40 days, so a single “typical” number masks very different hiring speeds across roles and employers. It's worth noting that this measures how long an ad stays posted, not how long an employer's internal hiring process takes.

Management and Bio & Health together drive more than half of open positions in Cedar Rapids

There are five sectors that together account for more than 85% of classified openings in Cedar Rapids.

Firstly, Management (27%) and Bio & Health (25%) are the two largest sources of open positions. Then, Engineering (16%), IT & Technology (11%) and Sales (8%) round out the top five. The concentration in Bio & Health is notable for a metro of Cedar Rapids' size while the strength of hiring in Management and Engineering is more expected.

Employers advertised an average salary of $62,123 for specialist roles in Q1 2026

Average advertised salary for specialist-level roles was $62,123 in Q1 2026, down 1.5% from $63,082 in Q4 2025 but essentially comparable with $62,803 a year earlier.

Across all five quarters tracked, the figure has hovered in a narrow band roughly between $61,600 and $63,300. This shows that wages for this market's largest job category don't appear to be meaningfully rising or falling, even as the volume of postings has grown substantially.

About 80% of open positions in Cedar Rapids are for specialists

Specialist-level roles make up nearly 80% of all open positions in Cedar Rapids, dwarfing every other level. In fact, team leader roles are a distant second at under 10%, followed by head of department (5%), project manager (4%), VP (1%) and managing director (0.5%).

This is a market overwhelmingly oriented toward individual-contributor and specialist hiring rather than management expansion.

How these metrics are calculated: methodology

Geography: Cedar Rapids, Iowa

Period: Q1 2025 through Q1 2026

New positions: Unique job openings that appeared for the first time in each quarter. Duplicate postings by the same employer are excluded.

Time to fill: Median number of days between a job ad's first appearance and its confirmed removal from the market. Only full-time positions are included for Q1 2026; historical quarters include all contract types due to data availability. Negative durations (pipeline timing artifacts) are excluded. The interquartile range (P25–P75) shows where the middle 50% of closings fall. Time to fill reflects how long employers kept a listing active, not necessarily how long the hiring process took internally.

Salary: Average salary advertised by employers for specialist-level roles. Only positions that included a salary figure are counted. Statistical methods are applied to remove extreme values and ensure the average reflects what most job seekers would realistically encounter.

Industries: Sectors with the most open positions. Openings without a recognised sector are excluded.

Role levels: Based on the seniority indicated in each job title.

Fair use statement

Found something useful in this Cedar Rapids labor market breakdown? You're welcome to cite the figures or findings–just make sure to attribute JobLeads and link back to the original article.