Labor Market Pulse · Information Technology · October 2026
Information Technology Labor Market Report: Billings, MT MSA — October 2026
Billings IT pay splits: security and systems rise, network falls.
Billings Cybersecurity Analyst pay rose to $99,061 and Systems Administrator pay climbed to $78,605, while Network Engineer pay fell significantly to $90,854 even as the national figure rose to $115,757.
Free archive edition. Published by WageScape as sent to subscribers; data as of October 2026.
Key indicators
- Yellowstone County unemployment: 3.1% — vs 4.1% national rate, August 2026
- Montana IT/tech job growth: 28% — vs overall Montana employment roughly flat
- Network Engineer advertised pay, metro: $90,854 — down significantly vs national $115,757, up moderately
- Yellowstone avg weekly wage growth: 3.3% YoY — vs 4.2% national wage growth, Q4 2025
Key takeaways
Systems Administrator pay is climbing while Network Engineer pay is falling.
Metro Systems Administrator advertised pay rose significantly to $78,605 even as Network Engineer pay fell significantly to $90,854, a divergence that breaks from national trends where both roles show upward movement. This gap may signal local employers consolidating infrastructure responsibilities into systems administration ahead of maintaining separate network engineering headcount.
Cybersecurity pay gains mirror national defensive hiring pressure.
Metro Cybersecurity Analyst pay rose significantly to $99,061, tracking the national moderate increase to $107,327 and closing some of the metro-national gap. With 87% of tech leaders nationally reporting they pay premiums for specialized skills, Billings employers appear to be competing actively on security compensation, holding ground against remote or outsourced providers.
Help desk compression suggests automation is reaching frontline IT support.
Metro Help Desk pay fell moderately to $49,013, consistent with national declines and with widespread AI adoption reported across Montana's tech sector. Organizations planning support desk headcount should weigh whether attrition in this role reflects reduced demand, which would make a hiring freeze worth maintaining rather than reversing.
Montana's tech wage convergence with national peers narrows the outsourcing discount.
Montana computer systems design wages were 35% below U.S. peers in 2018 but have closed that gap by 2024-2025, reaching $146,000, 2.4 times the state average. That convergence weakens the traditional cost rationale for building local infrastructure teams compared with accessing talent in lower-cost regions or through remote-first hiring.
Median advertised pay by role — Billings, MT MSA
| Role | 25th percentile | Median advertised pay | 75th percentile | Metro trend | National median |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Data Scientist | $86,135 | $113,895 | $117,026 | Stable | $145,881 |
| Systems Administrator | $67,522 | $78,605 | $95,024 | Significant increase | $102,503 |
| Network Engineer | $82,272 | $90,854 | $92,399 | Significant decline | $115,757 |
| Software Engineer | $88,215 | $147,521 | $168,171 | Stable | $154,403 |
| Help Desk/IT Support Specialist | $41,600 | $49,013 | $54,080 | Moderate decline | $53,129 |
| Cybersecurity Analyst | $85,000 | $99,061 | $131,934 | Significant increase | $107,327 |
| IT Project Manager | $96,086 | $116,337 | $122,462 | Stable | $118,150 |
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
Yellowstone County's 3.1% unemployment rate and 0.8% employment growth in 2025 point to a labor market with little slack, even as statewide information and technology employment grew 28% against otherwise flat Montana job totals. Average weekly wages in Yellowstone rose 3.3% year-over-year to $1,355, trailing the national $1,569 pace of 4.2%, a gap that appears to reflect the metro's smaller, less specialized tech employer base alongside steady local demand for skilled talent.
What it means
Metro pay movements this month diverge sharply by role: Systems Administrator and Cybersecurity Analyst advertised pay rose significantly while Network Engineer pay fell significantly and Help Desk pay softened, suggesting Billings employers are reallocating budget toward security and systems operations roles at the expense of network-layer and entry-level support positions. That pattern is consistent with national infrastructure and data-center hiring momentum colliding with a structurally tight Montana technical labor pool, which may make local build-out of network engineering capacity costlier than sourcing it through managed services or regional staffing partners. Consider reviewing whether network engineering and help desk functions are better suited to outsourced or hybrid delivery models given the metro's inverted pay signals relative to national trends.
Looking ahead
Early indicator: Network Engineer pay's significant metro decline against a national increase is unusual enough to watch closely over the next two postings cycles — confirm whether this reflects a real shift in local demand or a temporary data artifact from a thin advertised-pay sample.
Expected: Montana's minimum wage rises to $11.20 on January 1, 2027, which will compress the gap between entry-level IT support pay and baseline wage floors, a pressure point for help desk retention planning.
Worth watching: Montana's designation as a Regional Technology/Innovation Hub, paired with 28% growth in information and technology jobs, suggests infrastructure and ops hiring could accelerate locally even as the broader Montana economy stays flat — budget for selective specialist hiring ahead of broad headcount expansion.
Potential inflection point: National tech layoffs have already exceeded 133,000 workers through October, ahead of all of 2025. Watch whether displaced talent from larger markets begins appearing in the Billings candidate pool given Montana's remote-work durability, with 30% of the state's tech workforce fully remote.
Sources
- Bureau of Labor Statistics / USA Facts — Yellowstone County unemployment rate and 2025 employment growth figures
- Bureau of Business and Economic Research (BBER) — Montana information and technology jobs grew 28%
- Industry survey cited in national IT labor market research — 87% of tech leaders pay premiums for specialized skills
- Bureau of Business and Economic Research (BBER) — Montana computer systems design wages closed gap with U.S. peers, reaching $146K
- Montana Department of Labor and Industry — Montana minimum wage rises to $11.20 effective January 1, 2027
- Layoffs tracking aggregator cited in national IT labor research — 133,417 tech employees laid off at 325 companies through Oct. 21, 2026
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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