Labor Market Pulse · Information Technology · October 2026
Information Technology Labor Market Report: Cleveland-Elyria-Mentor, OH MSA — October 2026
Cleveland's tight labor market splits IT pay by function.
Cleveland metro unemployment sits at 3.3% against 4.1% nationally, while advertised pay for systems administrators and cybersecurity analysts climbs even as help desk pay falls to $50,473.
Free archive edition. Published by WageScape as sent to subscribers; data as of October 2026.
Key indicators
- Cleveland metro unemployment rate: 3.3% — vs. 4.1% national, 3.4% Ohio
- Cleveland nonfarm employment: 1.104 million — Highest level since June 2019 (June 2026)
- Cuyahoga County wage growth: 4.8% YoY — Q1 2026 avg weekly wage $1,630
- Ohio technician talent gap: 5 openings per candidate — Statewide ratio, per JobsOhio
Key takeaways
Infrastructure pay is outrunning software engineering pay locally.
Systems administrator and network engineer advertised pay rose this month in Cleveland while software engineer pay held flat at $122,686. Headcount planning may need to shift budget weight toward infrastructure and security roles, treating software talent as a secondary cost driver for now.
Cybersecurity wage growth outpaces the broader IT market.
Cybersecurity analyst advertised pay climbed to $102,628 locally, tracking the national move to $107,327 and consistent with national reporting that IT systems and solutions wages grew 4.7% year-over-year. Retention budgets for security staff likely need to move faster than general IT merit increases to hold pace.
Ohio's technician shortage strengthens the case for retention and internal development.
A five-to-one ratio of open technician jobs to qualified candidates statewide, paired with JobsOhio's new $10,000-per-worker training subsidy requiring 1:1 employer matching, favors organizations that invest in internal development over those relying on external recruiting. Current conditions suggest evaluating whether existing staff can be upskilled into scarce infrastructure roles before competing for a thin outside pool.
Help desk compensation softness may reflect automation substitution.
Help desk and IT support advertised pay fell both locally ($50,473) and nationally ($53,129) this month, a pattern consistent with national AI-related postings now representing 7.3% of all postings — well above the 2022 peak of 3.3%. Organizations rebalancing support headcount toward AI-assisted tooling may find this role increasingly commoditized in compensation terms.
Median advertised pay by role — Cleveland-Elyria-Mentor, OH MSA
| Role | 25th percentile | Median advertised pay | 75th percentile | Metro trend | National median |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Data Scientist | $95,196 | $123,503 | $142,753 | Moderate decline | $145,881 |
| Systems Administrator | $73,123 | $82,012 | $91,401 | Moderate increase | $102,503 |
| Network Engineer | $59,196 | $94,822 | $116,328 | Moderate increase | $115,757 |
| Software Engineer | $89,391 | $122,686 | $144,516 | Stable | $154,403 |
| Help Desk/IT Support Specialist | $39,415 | $50,473 | $55,655 | Moderate decline | $53,129 |
| Cybersecurity Analyst | $82,007 | $102,628 | $111,178 | Moderate increase | $107,327 |
| IT Project Manager | $83,069 | $105,893 | $120,346 | 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
Cleveland metro nonfarm employment hit 1.104 million in June 2026 — its highest level since June 2019 — while the regional unemployment rate held at 3.3%, tighter than both the Ohio (3.4%) and national (4.1%) rates. Cuyahoga County average weekly wages rose 4.8% year-over-year in Q1 2026 to $1,630, outpacing broader state wage signals and reflecting demand pressure in a metro PNC analysts flagged as outperforming the rest of Ohio through the first half of 2026.
What it means
Tighter local labor supply combined with Ohio's reported five-to-one ratio of open technician roles to qualified candidates sharpens the build-versus-buy calculus for infrastructure and security headcount, particularly as data center-adjacent trades command total compensation of $240,000–$280,000 in high-demand markets nationally. Metro advertised pay for systems administrators ($82,012) and network engineers ($94,822) is rising even as cybersecurity analyst pay climbs to $102,628, signaling that infrastructure and security functions are absorbing wage pressure faster than software roles, which sit flat. Consider reviewing whether internal upskilling pathways — including JobsOhio's Technician Path matching-fund program — can offset external recruiting costs before TechCred-style credential subsidies run dry again next fiscal cycle.
Looking ahead
Early indicator: Cuyahoga County employment declined 0.7% in March 2026 even as metro-wide hiring hit a seven-year high, a divergence worth tracking for signs the county-level softness is spreading into IT-heavy suburban employment centers like Mayfield Village.
Emerging pressure point: National tech layoffs have already exceeded 133,000 workers through late October, surpassing all of 2025. Watch whether displaced talent from national tech hub contractions begins surfacing in the Cleveland candidate pool, which could ease sourcing pressure on cloud and software roles even as infrastructure roles stay tight.
Potential inflection point: TechCred's fiscal-year credential reimbursement budget is already exhausted statewide. Expect renewed program funding debates in the next state budget cycle; until resolved, upskilling investment for entry-level technician pipelines carries higher out-of-pocket cost for employers.
Worth watching: JobsOhio's Technician Path program, launched in August 2026, is new enough that adoption data is not yet public. Early employer uptake over the next two months will signal whether the 1:1 matching requirement is a meaningful lever for infrastructure headcount planning or too costly to scale.
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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