Labor Market Pulse · Information Technology · October 2026
Information Technology Labor Market Report: Davenport-Moline-Rock Island, IA-IL MSA — October 2026
Metro job losses mask a tightening, bifurcated IT pay market.
Illinois-side metro employment fell 3.3% year-over-year even as Network Engineer pay climbed to $106,633 and Help Desk pay dropped to $47,840, widening the infrastructure-support compensation gap.
Free archive edition. Published by WageScape as sent to subscribers; data as of October 2026.
Key indicators
- Metro nonfarm employment change: -3.3% — Illinois section, year-over-year, Sept 2026
- Rock Island vs Scott County unemployment: 4.0% vs 3.0% — August 2026, Illinois vs Iowa side of metro
- Scott County wage growth: 5.1% — Year-over-year through Q1 2026, outpaces Rock Island
- Illinois WARN-affected workers: 17,843 — Up 24% from 2025, concentrated in manufacturing/retail
Key takeaways
Metro job losses are concentrated in specific sectors.
Illinois-side metro employment fell 3.3% year-over-year even as unemployment declined, consistent with workforce contraction concentrated in particular sectors even as headline unemployment eases. IT leaders should expect candidate pools for infrastructure and security roles to stay thin despite headline unemployment figures suggesting slack.
Network Engineer pay is pulling away from support roles.
Metro Network Engineer advertised pay rose to $106,633 with significant upward momentum while Help Desk/IT Support fell to $47,840, a 123% spread. This gap reflects employers prioritizing infrastructure buildout talent over frontline support, a pattern consistent with the national data center hiring surge.
Scott County is emerging as the metro's wage-setting market.
Scott County's 5.1% wage growth and 3.0% unemployment outpace Rock Island County's 4.0% jobless rate, meaning IT compensation benchmarks anchored only to the Illinois side may already understate what competitive offers require. Cross-river commuting patterns make this a concrete competitive threat.
Cybersecurity Analyst pay softening locally cuts against national direction.
Metro Cybersecurity Analyst median fell to $98,218 even as the national figure rose to $107,327, a divergence worth investigating before assuming it reflects reduced local demand. Current conditions suggest checking whether this reflects a thinner local sample or a real gap that could expose the metro to outside recruiting.
Median advertised pay by role — Davenport-Moline-Rock Island, IA-IL MSA
| Role | 25th percentile | Median advertised pay | 75th percentile | Metro trend | National median |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Data Scientist | $113,377 | $140,001 | $156,000 | Stable | $145,881 |
| Systems Administrator | $79,461 | $82,889 | $92,500 | Moderate increase | $102,503 |
| Network Engineer | $65,756 | $106,633 | $117,719 | Significant increase | $115,757 |
| Software Engineer | $86,185 | $121,190 | $145,106 | Moderate increase | $154,403 |
| Help Desk/IT Support Specialist | $41,188 | $47,840 | $48,880 | Moderate decline | $53,129 |
| Cybersecurity Analyst | $85,805 | $98,218 | $112,362 | Moderate decline | $107,327 |
| IT Project Manager | $108,491 | $124,544 | $136,541 | 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
East Moline sits inside a Davenport-Moline-Rock Island metro where the Illinois section's unemployment fell to 5.0% in September but nonfarm employment contracted 3.3% year-over-year, a loss of 2,900 jobs — a combination that signals fewer people looking for work alongside softer hiring. County divergence is sharp: Rock Island County unemployment sat at 4.0% in August against Scott County's 3.0%, with Scott County wages up 5.1% year-over-year, pointing to a tighter, better-compensated labor pool concentrated on the Iowa side of the river.
What it means
Shrinking Illinois-side payrolls alongside falling unemployment indicate labor supply is tightening even as overall job counts soften, a pattern that raises replacement risk for infrastructure and support staff who have few local alternatives but may be courted by Scott County employers paying a premium. Network Engineer pay climbing to $106,633 locally while Help Desk/IT Support median has dropped to $47,840 suggests employers are concentrating scarce compensation dollars on infrastructure-critical roles and pushing routine support toward lower-cost delivery models. Consider reviewing whether support-tier compensation decline reflects a deliberate shift toward outsourced or offshore help desk coverage or an unintended signal that is accelerating attrition among remaining on-site staff.
Looking ahead
Early indicator: Watch whether Rock Island County's weaker wage growth relative to Scott County widens further; a growing gap could push IT talent toward Iowa-side employers and tighten Illinois-side infrastructure and support pipelines.
Worth watching: National data center postings up 20% in three months and 147% above June 2024 levels have not yet shown a clear local echo — monitor whether Quad Cities infrastructure employers begin competing for the same specialized talent pool.
Potential inflection point: Illinois' 100 WARN notices in 2026, up 24% in affected workers from 2025, have been concentrated in manufacturing and retail, with limited presence in white-collar IT; track whether displaced technical staff from these filings begin appearing in local IT candidate pools.
Emerging pressure point: Cybersecurity Analyst advertised pay diverging from the national uptrend warrants a second look next month to confirm whether it is a market signal or a reporting artifact before compensation decisions are made on 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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