Labor Market Pulse · Information Technology · September 2026
Information Technology Labor Market Report: Dayton, OH MSA — September 2026
Dayton's tight labor market hides a widening IT pay split.
Metro unemployment sits at 3.0% even as Data Scientist pay falls to $111,269 against a rising $148,250 national figure, while Network Engineer pay jumps to $106,443 on Columbus data-center spillover.
Free archive edition. Published by WageScape as sent to subscribers; data as of September 2026.
Key indicators
- Dayton MSA unemployment rate: 3.0% — vs 4.1% national, 3.3% Ohio statewide
- Dayton job growth pace, 2026: 100 jobs/month avg — Down from 117/month in 2025, weakest since 2020
- Data Scientist advertised pay, metro: $111,269 — Down significantly vs $148,250 national, rising moderately
- Ohio WARN activity, trailing 90 days: 3,134 workers — 18 notices, led by manufacturing (23 notices statewide)
Key takeaways
Data Scientist pay is falling here while rising everywhere else.
Metro median of $111,269 trails the $148,250 national figure by a widening margin, with local pay moving down significantly even as national demand accelerates. This divergence suggests Dayton employers are either substituting contract analytics talent or losing specialized roles to Columbus and remote-first employers.
Network Engineer pay is the one role moving up sharply.
Metro median climbed to $106,443, a significant local gain outpacing even the national trend. Consistent with Columbus's data center expansion drawing infrastructure talent regionally, forcing Dayton employers to bid up pay to retain networking and infrastructure staff rather than lose them to a 20-minute commute shift.
IT Project Manager compensation looks like a structural pullback.
Metro median down significantly to $111,615 against a national figure rising moderately to $117,530 may reflect fewer standalone PM roles as organizations fold project oversight into senior technical positions. Reevaluate whether this role should be benchmarked against a shrinking local market or a stronger national one before the next req is posted.
Help Desk and Cybersecurity Analyst pay sit still — for now.
Both roles show stable metro and national trends, but CompTIA's 2026 data placing cybersecurity skill growth at 346% above national average suggests this calm is temporary. Flat advertised pay alongside surging demand signals is the kind of gap that typically closes fast once hiring managers start competing for the same candidates.
Median advertised pay by role — Dayton, OH MSA
| Role | 25th percentile | Median advertised pay | 75th percentile | Metro trend | National median |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Data Scientist | $95,848 | $111,269 | $122,500 | Significant decline | $148,250 |
| Systems Administrator | $81,615 | $103,642 | $113,391 | Stable | $101,168 |
| Network Engineer | $77,530 | $106,443 | $121,551 | Significant increase | $114,400 |
| Software Engineer | $100,555 | $120,007 | $132,500 | Stable | $153,652 |
| Help Desk/IT Support Specialist | $42,024 | $50,393 | $58,525 | Stable | $53,644 |
| Cybersecurity Analyst | $91,247 | $110,222 | $121,342 | Stable | $106,790 |
| IT Project Manager | $106,140 | $111,615 | $116,673 | Significant decline | $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
Dayton's 3.0% unemployment rate — among the tightest of any major metro nationally — sits against a regional job growth pace averaging just 100 jobs per month in 2026, the slowest since 2020, suggesting labor scarcity rather than hiring momentum is driving the tight reading. Manufacturing and construction firms report active hiring constrained by skilled-trades shortages, a dynamic increasingly bleeding into infrastructure and network roles that compete for the same technically-skilled labor pool.
What it means
Metro Data Scientist pay down significantly against a national figure moving up moderately signals Dayton employers losing pricing power for advanced analytics talent precisely as Columbus's data center boom — 1,100+ jobs added regionally since 2021 — pulls cloud and infrastructure specialists northward. IT Project Manager pay falling locally while rising nationally points toward either a cooling in project-based hiring or a quiet reclassification of project oversight into senior engineering roles, a pattern worth distinguishing before budgeting next cycle's headcount. Organizations should evaluate whether build-vs-buy tradeoffs for specialized cloud and data roles now favor regional contracting partners over direct hires, given Dayton's shrinking wage premium relative to Columbus-adjacent markets.
Looking ahead
Worth watching: Columbus's data center employment growth has outpaced Dayton's infrastructure hiring for three straight years. Watch whether Dayton employers begin advertising remote-eligible infrastructure and network roles at Columbus-competitive rates to stop talent leakage up I-70.
Emerging pressure point: Ohio WARN activity shows 18 notices and 3,134 affected workers in 90 days, concentrated in manufacturing and transportation — sectors adjacent to Dayton's industrial base. Monitor whether displaced technical and operations staff with transferable skills enter the local IT support and infrastructure candidate pool.
Early indicator: Regional job growth slowing to 100 jobs per month, Dayton's weakest pace since 2020, may constrain the broader hiring environment even as IT-specific roles stay tight. Watch whether this translates into longer time-to-fill for specialized cloud and security positions as competition concentrates on a shrinking labor pool.
Potential inflection point: Data Scientist pay has now moved down significantly for a second consecutive reporting period locally while national pay climbs. If the gap keeps widening, expect increased attrition risk among analytics staff with remote-work options, and consider whether retention budgets need front-loading before Q4 reviews.
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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