Labor Market Pulse · Information Technology · September 2026
Information Technology Labor Market Report: Cheyenne, WY MSA — September 2026
Cheyenne's cybersecurity pay falls as network engineering pay climbs.
Metro Cybersecurity Analyst pay dropped to $88,369 against a rising $106,790 national figure, even as Network Engineer pay jumped to $136,097, outpacing the national median.
Free archive edition. Published by WageScape as sent to subscribers; data as of September 2026.
Key indicators
- Cybersecurity Analyst pay (metro): $88,369 — Down significantly vs $106,790 national, up moderately
- Network Engineer pay (metro): $136,097 — Up significantly, above $114,400 national median
- Laramie County unemployment: 2.6%-2.7% — Well below 4.1% U.S. rate, July/June 2026
- Wyoming quits rate: 2.1% — Decade low, signals reduced job mobility
Key takeaways
Cheyenne's cybersecurity pay gap signals a buy, not build, moment.
Metro Cybersecurity Analyst pay dropped significantly to $88,369 against a rising $106,790 national figure — a 17% gap that widens monthly. Organizations unable to close that gap through direct hire should weigh managed security services before vacancies compound risk exposure.
Network Engineer demand looks like the real local growth story.
Metro pay rose significantly to $136,097, actually outpacing the $114,400 national median. This tracks with state-level signals pointing to isolated infrastructure build-outs and suggests this role, not cybersecurity, is where Cheyenne employers are actively competing.
A 2.1% statewide quits rate masks a flight risk, not loyalty.
Decade-low quits alongside falling information-sector employment is consistent with workers staying because local options are thin, not because they are satisfied. Retention metrics built on tenure alone may be missing building pressure that surfaces once remote or regional opportunities expand.
Software Engineer pay strength doesn't mean broad IT health.
Metro Software Engineer pay rose moderately to $166,191, well above the $153,652 national figure, but this sits against a county-wide information-sector employment decline. Treat this as a narrow, high-skill outlier rather than evidence of a generally strengthening local tech labor market.
Median advertised pay by role — Cheyenne, WY MSA
| Role | 25th percentile | Median advertised pay | 75th percentile | Metro trend | National median |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Data Scientist | $106,371 | $133,578 | $147,533 | Significant increase | $148,250 |
| Systems Administrator | $81,653 | $97,484 | $106,148 | Stable | $101,168 |
| Network Engineer | $81,169 | $136,097 | $161,182 | Significant increase | $114,400 |
| Software Engineer | $131,348 | $166,191 | $180,325 | Moderate increase | $153,652 |
| Help Desk/IT Support Specialist | $40,284 | $49,583 | $49,680 | Stable | $53,644 |
| Cybersecurity Analyst | $74,613 | $88,369 | $106,943 | Significant decline | $106,790 |
| IT Project Manager | $106,026 | $126,291 | $131,091 | Moderate increase | $117,530 |
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
Laramie County's unemployment rate held near multi-year lows at 2.6%-2.7% through mid-2026, but the county's information sector shed jobs year-over-year even as overall nonfarm employment softened by 300 positions in April — a sign of narrow, sector-specific contraction rather than broad distress. Wyoming's statewide quits rate fell to a decade-low 2.1%, consistent with a Cheyenne IT workforce that appears more trapped than loyal, constrained by limited local alternatives rather than genuine retention strength.
What it means
Cybersecurity Analyst advertised pay in Cheyenne fell sharply to $88,369 even as the national figure climbed to $106,790 — a divergence that suggests local employers are either losing pricing power for security talent or quietly shifting security work to contractors and managed service providers rather than competing on direct hire compensation. Network Engineer and Software Engineer pay, by contrast, posted significant local gains, pointing to concentrated demand in infrastructure and build-side roles that may reflect data center and nuclear-adjacent project activity (TerraPower) rather than broad-based IT expansion. Current conditions suggest reviewing whether cybersecurity functions are better retained through outsourced or managed arrangements while reserving direct-hire investment for infrastructure and engineering roles showing genuine local wage momentum.
Looking ahead
Emerging pressure point: Watch whether the Cybersecurity Analyst pay gap widens further; continued softening may force a decision between accelerated hiring investment and formal transition to managed security providers.
Worth watching: TerraPower's March 2026 nuclear reactor approval may generate isolated technical hiring clusters near Cheyenne over the next two quarters — track whether this pulls infrastructure and network talent away from existing employers.
Early indicator: Statewide tech postings remain down 33% from 2020 levels; any reversal in Cheyenne-specific postings over the next 60 days would be a meaningful signal of renewed employer confidence rather than normal seasonal variation.
Potential inflection point: Laramie County's information-sector job losses, if they persist into Q4 reporting, would confirm structural retrenchment rather than a one-quarter anomaly — relevant to any headcount plans built on assumed local talent availability.
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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