Labor Market Pulse · Information Technology · September 2026
Information Technology Labor Market Report: Cleveland-Elyria-Mentor, OH MSA — September 2026
Cleveland IT pay splits: infrastructure flat, data science falling.
Metro Data Scientist advertised pay fell to $123,503 even as the national median climbed to $148,250, while Systems Administrator and Network Engineer pay held flat against rising national figures.
Free archive edition. Published by WageScape as sent to subscribers; data as of September 2026.
Key indicators
- Cleveland metro unemployment: 3.3% — vs 4.1% national rate, August 2026
- Cleveland nonfarm employment: 1.104M — Highest since June 2019
- Data Scientist advertised pay (metro): $123,503 — Down vs $148,250 national, which is rising
- Help Desk/IT Support pay (metro): $51,559 — Down; national held near-flat at $53,644
Key takeaways
Data Scientist pay is falling locally while the nation moves up.
Metro advertised median dropped to $123,503 against a national climb to $148,250, a reversal wide enough to signal local demand softening rather than normal noise. Retention risk builds for any Data Scientist currently benchmarked against national postings rather than this metro's own trend.
Infrastructure roles are frozen, not thriving.
Systems Administrator, Network Engineer, and IT Project Manager advertised pay held flat locally while national medians for the same roles moved up moderately. Flat local pay amid rising national pay suggests Cleveland employers aren't yet forced to compete nationally for these roles — a signal to watch rather than a reason to stand still.
Help Desk pay is compressing fastest of any tracked role.
Metro Help Desk/IT Support median fell to $51,559 while the national figure stayed essentially flat, consistent with CompTIA and SHRM data showing AI commoditizing lower-tier technical execution work. Organizations should evaluate whether support headcount is better reallocated toward higher-value security and cloud functions rather than backfilled at current rates.
Columbus's data center boom is pulling regional talent gravity north.
Columbus data center employment grew 54% from 2021-2024 and now ranks 6th globally, creating a competing draw for cloud and infrastructure engineers that Cleveland employers can't ignore even without local data center expansion. Build-vs-buy decisions for infrastructure staffing should account for this regional pull, not just metro-level vacancy data.
Median advertised pay by role — Cleveland-Elyria-Mentor, OH MSA
| Role | 25th percentile | Median advertised pay | 75th percentile | Metro trend | National median |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Data Scientist | $95,099 | $123,503 | $145,421 | Significant decline | $148,250 |
| Systems Administrator | $72,736 | $79,990 | $88,456 | Stable | $101,168 |
| Network Engineer | $56,583 | $90,000 | $111,178 | Stable | $114,400 |
| Software Engineer | $89,443 | $121,152 | $144,516 | Stable | $153,652 |
| Help Desk/IT Support Specialist | $39,534 | $51,559 | $59,111 | Moderate decline | $53,644 |
| Cybersecurity Analyst | $77,935 | $94,722 | $109,861 | Stable | $106,790 |
| IT Project Manager | $83,069 | $104,769 | $119,719 | Stable | $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
Cleveland-area employment hit a seven-year high in June at 1.104 million nonfarm jobs, with PNC analysts naming Cleveland the state's job-growth leader even as Ohio's statewide labor force shrank by 1.9% year over year. Metro IT wage pressure is diverging sharply by discipline — Data Scientist advertised pay fell to a $123,503 local median against a rising $148,250 national figure, while Cybersecurity Analyst and Systems Administrator pay held flat locally, suggesting employers are capturing softer demand in AI-adjacent roles even as core infrastructure and security pay stays sticky.
What it means
Metro wage data showing flat Systems Administrator and Network Engineer pay alongside falling Data Scientist advertised pay suggests Cleveland employers face little competitive pressure to raise offers for commodity infrastructure roles, but may be under-pricing specialized data and AI talent relative to the national market, where Data Scientist pay is climbing and mid-level AI engineers nationally posted 9.2% annual gains. Columbus's data center boom and the Cleveland Clinic/University Hospitals employment gravity mean local competition for cloud and infrastructure engineers is regional rather than hyperlocal, favoring outsourced support staffing over permanent headcount expansion for commodity functions. Consider reviewing whether current Data Scientist and AI-adjacent compensation bands reflect a genuine local demand gap or simply lag national repricing before the next hiring cycle locks in under-market offers.
Looking ahead
Early indicator: Watch whether September's BLS release confirms Cleveland's June employment peak held through late summer; a pullback would undercut the PNC narrative of Cleveland outperforming the state and could ease current wage stickiness in infrastructure roles.
Emerging pressure point: Ohio WARN activity remains concentrated in manufacturing and logistics, not tech, but any spillover into Cleveland-area information-sector layoffs — echoing the national information-industry job losses in August — would be worth tracking for its effect on local IT candidate supply.
Worth watching: National information-industry employment losses in August 2026 contrast with Cleveland's broader job growth; confirm whether local tech and healthcare-IT employers are insulated from that national softness or simply lagging it.
Potential inflection point: Data Scientist and AI-adjacent advertised pay is diverging from national trends; a reversal toward national repricing in Q4 postings would signal Cleveland employers are catching up to national AI talent competition rather than remaining insulated from it.
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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