Labor Market Pulse · Information Technology · October 2026
Information Technology Labor Market Report: Asheville, NC MSA — October 2026
Asheville IT pay splits sharply between infrastructure and support roles.
Network Engineer advertised pay climbed to $119,184 — above the $115,757 national figure — while Systems Administrator pay fell to $83,226 even as the metro's 3.1% unemployment rate stayed the lowest in North Carolina.
Free archive edition. Published by WageScape as sent to subscribers; data as of October 2026.
Key indicators
- Metro unemployment rate: 3.1% — Lowest among NC metros; vs 4.1% national
- Network Engineer advertised pay: $119,184 — Up significantly; exceeds $115,757 national
- Systems Administrator advertised pay: $83,226 — Down significantly vs $102,503 national (up)
- NC automation skills gap: -12 — More postings than available candidates statewide
Key takeaways
Network Engineer pay is outrunning the national market.
Metro median advertised pay of $119,184 now exceeds the national figure of $115,757, a reversal from typical metro discounting patterns. This is consistent with national data center and infrastructure hiring demand reaching secondary markets, and suggests local network and infrastructure roles should be benchmarked against current postings.
Systems Administrator pay decline may signal role consolidation.
Metro median pay fell significantly to $83,226 even as the national median rose to $102,503, a widening gap unusual for a metro with 3.1% unemployment. Current conditions suggest organizations are narrowing this role's scope or shifting routine administration work toward managed services over competing for dedicated staff.
Cybersecurity and IT Project Manager pay are diverging sharply.
Cybersecurity Analyst pay rose significantly to $107,629, essentially matching the national median, while IT Project Manager pay fell moderately to $110,000 against a stable $118,150 nationally. The split appears to reflect employers prioritizing technical risk and compliance functions over program-management overhead amid tighter IT budgets.
Tight local unemployment is not translating into broad IT wage pressure.
Asheville's 3.1% unemployment rate is the lowest among NC metros, yet Software Engineer pay held flat at $129,122 and Help Desk pay rose only moderately to $52,054. This pattern suggests role-specific demand, particularly for infrastructure and security skills, is the primary driver of IT compensation this month.
Median advertised pay by role — Asheville, NC MSA
| Role | 25th percentile | Median advertised pay | 75th percentile | Metro trend | National median |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Data Scientist | $104,207 | $121,483 | $133,030 | Significant increase | $145,881 |
| Systems Administrator | $70,739 | $83,226 | $87,500 | Significant decline | $102,503 |
| Network Engineer | $106,843 | $119,184 | $121,956 | Significant increase | $115,757 |
| Software Engineer | $105,090 | $129,122 | $134,323 | Stable | $154,403 |
| Help Desk/IT Support Specialist | $42,844 | $52,054 | $57,335 | Moderate increase | $53,129 |
| Cybersecurity Analyst * | $86,895 | $107,629 | $121,682 | Significant increase | $107,327 |
| IT Project Manager * | $79,439 | $110,000 | $122,585 | Moderate decline | $118,150 |
* State-level figure shown where metro postings were too few.
WageScape's median is calibrated to correct for spurious low-value postings (reported as the 60th percentile of raw advertised pay). Download: CSV · JSON
Local market conditions
Asheville's metro unemployment rate held at 3.1% in August 2026, the lowest among North Carolina metros and nearly a full point below the national rate of 4.1%, even as the region's labor market remains shaped by incomplete post-Helene recovery concentrated in tourism and hospitality employment. Tight overall labor supply is colliding with a cooling information sector statewide, where North Carolina employment turned negative for 2025 after 8% growth in 2022, creating a market where IT talent is scarce locally while national tech layoffs (133,417 through October 21) have yet to produce meaningful local candidate flow.
What it means
Local advertised pay data show infrastructure and security roles pulling away from application-development roles: Network Engineer pay rose significantly to a metro median of $119,184 (above the $115,757 national figure), while Systems Administrator pay fell significantly to $83,226, a gap that suggests employers are consolidating routine systems administration while paying up for engineers who can manage hybrid and data center build-out work. This divergence, layered onto a metro with tight unemployment (3.1%) and a national trend toward outsourcing routine infrastructure operations to lower-cost regions, points toward build-vs-buy decisions for lower-tier infrastructure support over continued local headcount expansion. Consider reviewing systems administration staffing models against outsourcing or managed-services alternatives before backfilling departures, while protecting compensation for network and security roles where local advertised pay is already outpacing national medians.
Looking ahead
Worth watching: North Carolina's information sector has been shedding jobs even as statewide unemployment sits at 3.4%. Watch whether that statewide softness in tech employment begins to loosen Asheville's historically tight IT labor pool over the next two months.
Emerging pressure point: Automation skills show a negative hiring gap statewide (-12), meaning postings outpace available candidates. Local employers weighing build-vs-buy for automation and DevOps functions may find outsourcing or contractor arrangements more viable than direct hires through year-end.
Early indicator: National AI-related job postings now represent 7.3% of all postings, more than double the 2022 peak. Track whether Asheville employers begin reflecting this shift in advertised postings for infrastructure and support roles, which could reshape headcount planning for traditional help desk and sysadmin functions.
Potential inflection point: Tourism and hospitality employment in Buncombe County remains below pre-Helene levels, continuing to suppress broader metro labor force participation. A faster-than-expected hospitality recovery could tighten the overall local labor pool further, adding pressure to IT hiring timelines and advertised pay for support roles.
Sources
- NC Department of Commerce — Asheville MSA unemployment rate of 3.1% in August 2026, lowest among NC metros
- Bureau of Labor Statistics — National unemployment rate of 4.1% in October 2026
- NC labor market research notes — NC information sector employment negative for 2025 vs 8% growth in 2022
- Layoffs.fyi / industry tracking — 133,417 tech employees laid off at 325 companies through Oct 21, 2026
- NC IT labor market research notes — Automation skills show -12 gap in NC (postings exceed candidates)
- Indeed Hiring Lab — AI-related postings now 7.3% of all postings nationally, above 2022 peak of 3.3%
Methodology
Advertised pay from active employer job postings, not survey data. WageScape's median is calibrated to correct for spurious low-value postings: distribution analysis shows roughly the lowest 10% of raw values are erroneous entries, so the reported median is the 60th percentile of raw advertised pay. WageScape observes 98% of U.S. job openings daily.
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