Labor Market Pulse · Information Technology · October 2026
Information Technology Labor Market Report: Brunswick, GA MSA — October 2026
Brunswick wages rise on average while network and security pay slide.
Brunswick MSA average weekly wages climbed 4.6% year-over-year to $895.49, even as advertised Network Engineer pay fell to $77,614 — 33% below the national median of $115,757.
Free archive edition. Published by WageScape as sent to subscribers; data as of October 2026.
Key indicators
- Brunswick MSA unemployment rate: 2.8% — vs 4.1% national, 3.3% Georgia statewide
- Avg weekly wage, Brunswick MSA: $895.49 — up from $855.60 a year earlier (+4.6%)
- Network Engineer pay gap: -33% — Metro $77,614 vs national $115,757
- Georgia IT/comm employment growth: +6.4% YoY — 49.8K to 53.0K, Q2 2025 to Q2 2026
Key takeaways
Network Engineer pay gap signals a flight risk.
Metro median advertised pay of $77,614 trails the national figure by 33%, a significant and widening gap in a role category where national demand is rising moderately. Remote-capable engineers in Brunswick have more reason than ever to look outside the metro, and employers treating the local figure as the market rate risk losing exactly the talent they need to retain.
Cybersecurity and Help Desk pay are moving the wrong direction locally.
Both roles show declining advertised pay in Brunswick even as national cybersecurity pay rises moderately — a divergence that may reflect thinner local demand even where qualified candidates remain scarce. Treating these as low-priority hires risks understaffing security and support functions just as statewide IT services employment is projected to add over 7,300 jobs by 2028.
Stable headline wages in Brunswick mask role-level volatility.
Average weekly wages across the metro rose 4.6% year-over-year, but that aggregate obscures sharp divergence between stable roles like Software Engineer and Data Scientist and declining ones like Network Engineer and Help Desk Specialist. Workforce planning built on metro-wide wage trends alone will misprice individual role categories.
Outsourcing math is getting more favorable for routine infrastructure work.
Georgia's roughly 130 BPO firms and $700 million in service exports reflect established cost arbitrage, and domestic IT talent supply statewide continues to fall short of demand. Brunswick's limited local candidate pool for infrastructure and support roles strengthens the case for shifting routine operations to outsourced or offshore capacity while reserving local hiring for roles requiring on-site presence.
Median advertised pay by role — Brunswick, GA MSA
| Role | 25th percentile | Median advertised pay | 75th percentile | Metro trend | National median |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Data Scientist * | $114,306 | $140,663 | $159,523 | Stable | $145,881 |
| Systems Administrator * | $76,062 | $92,372 | $101,450 | Stable | $102,503 |
| Network Engineer | $56,684 | $77,614 | $79,404 | Significant decline | $115,757 |
| Software Engineer * | $113,585 | $150,217 | $163,776 | Stable | $154,403 |
| Help Desk/IT Support Specialist | $43,680 | $46,800 | $46,800 | Moderate decline | $53,129 |
| Cybersecurity Analyst * | $85,498 | $95,964 | $111,818 | Moderate decline | $107,327 |
| IT Project Manager * | $80,352 | $114,441 | $128,947 | Stable | $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
Brunswick MSA unemployment held at 2.8% in August, the lowest reading in three months, while average weekly wages rose to $895.49 — a 4.6% year-over-year gain against the backdrop of a national labor market adding jobs at roughly 175,000 per month against a 100,000 breakeven pace. Tight local labor supply, anchored by healthcare and food manufacturing employers like Southeast Georgia Health System and Rich Products, is colliding with a statewide IT sector that grew information/communication employment 6.4% year-over-year, pulling scarce technical talent toward Atlanta and other metros offering AI-premium compensation.
What it means
Metro-level pay compression is visible in roles like Network Engineer, where advertised pay sits $38,000 below the national median and has moved down significantly this month — a gap wide enough to make remote or hybrid postings from larger metros competitive for Brunswick-based talent without anyone relocating. Georgia's statewide IT talent shortfall, paired with a mature BPO sector employing roughly 46,000 across the state, means build-vs-buy decisions for routine infrastructure and support work increasingly favor outsourcing in a market this thin. Consider reviewing retention risk for infrastructure and support roles where advertised pay has softened locally, since falling local rates may reflect reduced employer competition even where skill value holds steady.
Looking ahead
Worth watching: Georgia Department of Labor's October metro release, delayed by the earlier BLS schedule shift, should show whether Brunswick's 2.8% unemployment rate held or tightened further. A drop below 2.7% would intensify competition for the limited local technical talent pool.
Emerging pressure point: National tech layoffs have already exceeded 133,000 workers for all of 2025, concentrated in large tech hubs. Watch whether any of that displaced talent, particularly in infrastructure or cybersecurity, begins surfacing in Southeast Georgia's remote-work candidate pool.
Potential inflection point: Network Engineer and Cybersecurity Analyst pay have moved down locally while national rates rise. If this divergence persists into November, it may indicate Brunswick employers are losing pricing power for these roles even as supply stays tight.
Early indicator: Georgia's information-sector employment grew 37.1% year-over-year through Q2, the state's fastest-growing segment. If that expansion concentrates in Atlanta over coastal Georgia, Brunswick employers may need to budget for wider pay premiums to compete for specialized infrastructure and security hires.
Sources
- Bureau of Labor Statistics / Georgia Department of Labor — Brunswick MSA unemployment and average weekly wage figures
- Bureau of Labor Statistics — National payroll growth pace of ~175,000/month against 100,000 breakeven
- Georgia Department of Economic Development — Georgia BPO sector size and IT outsourcing employment
- Layoffs.fyi / industry tracking — National tech layoffs exceeding 133,000 workers in 2026
- Georgia Department of Labor — Georgia information-sector employment growth of 37.1% year-over-year
- Georgia Department of Labor — Georgia statewide unemployment rate 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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