Labor Market Pulse · Information Technology · October 2026
Information Technology Labor Market Report: Deltona-Daytona Beach-Ormond Beach, FL MSA — October 2026
Security and infrastructure pay climbs as metro unemployment stays elevated.
Deltona-Daytona Beach-Ormond Beach unemployment held at 5.3% in August even as Systems Administrator pay rose to $98,910 and Cybersecurity Analyst pay climbed to $74,587, both outpacing broader metro wage trends.
Free archive edition. Published by WageScape as sent to subscribers; data as of October 2026.
Key indicators
- Metro unemployment rate: 5.3% — vs 4.2% national, 4.4% Florida statewide
- Systems Administrator advertised pay: $98,910 — Up significantly, nears $102,503 national median
- Network Engineer pay gap vs national: $34,703 — Metro $81,054 vs national $115,757
- Metro unemployment rank among large metros: 9th highest — Among 108 metros with 250k+ labor force, June 2026
Key takeaways
Systems Administrator pay is pulling away from national norms.
Metro median of $98,910 is up significantly and now sits within striking distance of the $102,503 national figure, a sharp local move given this metro's historically soft wage growth. This may signal local employers bidding up infrastructure talent to backfill roles amid data center and hybrid-cloud buildout.
Cybersecurity Analyst pay gap with national rate remains wide despite local gains.
Local median of $74,587, though rising significantly, still trails the $107,327 national figure by 30%. Build-vs-buy calculus favors managed security services or outsourced SOC arrangements for organizations unable to close that gap through internal hiring.
Network Engineer is becoming this metro's clearest cost arbitrage play.
Local pay fell to $81,054 while national pay rose to $115,757, widening the gap to roughly $35,000. Organizations elsewhere may find remote-based networking talent sourced from this metro economically attractive, while local employers risk losing talent to remote opportunities paying national rates.
Elevated metro unemployment coexists with targeted IT wage strength.
5.3% metro unemployment — nearly a full point above the national 4.2% — coexists with significant pay increases in two of seven tracked IT roles. Slack in the general labor pool is concentrated away from specialized technical functions, reinforcing that headcount planning for infrastructure and security roles should track skill scarcity.
Median advertised pay by role — Deltona-Daytona Beach-Ormond Beach, FL MSA
| Role | 25th percentile | Median advertised pay | 75th percentile | Metro trend | National median |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Data Scientist * | $109,224 | $135,877 | $152,228 | Stable | $145,881 |
| Systems Administrator | $75,696 | $98,910 | $105,000 | Significant increase | $102,503 |
| Network Engineer | $68,522 | $81,054 | $83,435 | Moderate decline | $115,757 |
| Software Engineer | $109,907 | $135,844 | $147,525 | Stable | $154,403 |
| Help Desk/IT Support Specialist | $38,433 | $42,848 | $47,500 | Moderate decline | $53,129 |
| Cybersecurity Analyst | $47,500 | $74,587 | $85,132 | Significant increase | $107,327 |
| IT Project Manager * | $90,471 | $118,454 | $130,000 | Moderate increase | $118,150 |
* State-level figure shown where metro postings were too few.
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
Deltona-Daytona Beach-Ormond Beach's unemployment rate held at 5.3% through August 2026, the 9th-highest among 108 large metro areas nationally, even as Florida's statewide rate improved to 4.4% in September. Metro IT hiring demand reflects this slack labor market unevenly: Systems Administrator and Cybersecurity Analyst advertised pay are both rising significantly even as Network Engineer and Help Desk pay decline, signaling employers are concentrating compensation dollars on infrastructure and security roles while deprioritizing commodity support and networking functions.
What it means
Elevated metro unemployment alongside role-specific pay surges in systems administration and cybersecurity indicates a skills-selective market: IT leaders can expect ample help desk and generalist applicant flow while specialized infrastructure and security hires remain competitive against national pay levels. Network Engineer's local decline to $81,054 against a national median of $115,757 — a 30% gap — suggests this metro is becoming a lower-cost sourcing option for networking talent that could support hybrid or remote staffing models. Consider reviewing whether security and systems administration headcount plans reflect the premium these roles now command locally, while testing whether networking and help desk functions can be resourced through remote or outsourced arrangements given the pay gap favoring this metro as a cost base.
Looking ahead
Early indicator: Watch whether Systems Administrator pay convergence toward the national median continues into November — a sustained climb would support reclassifying this role as a retention risk beyond a one-month anomaly.
Emerging pressure point: Information-sector employment in Florida lost 3,600 jobs over the year; monitor whether any of that displacement surfaces as networking or support talent entering the Deltona-Daytona Beach candidate pool, which could ease sourcing pressure on lower-paid roles.
Worth watching: National tech layoffs have already exceeded 133,000 through October, concentrated in large tech hubs; track whether displaced talent begins relocating toward lower-cost Florida metros, which could compress advertised pay for mid-level engineering and cloud roles locally.
Potential inflection point: Florida's AI readiness ranks 35th nationally with only 11.3% of businesses using AI tools; monitor whether this metro's employers begin advertising for AI/ML skills at the premiums seen nationally, which would force earlier build-vs-outsource decisions for mid-market IT operations.
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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