Labor Market Pulse · Information Technology · September 2026
Information Technology Labor Market Report: Dubuque, IA MSA — September 2026
Dubuque's IT pay splits: network and security up, admin down.
Metro Network Engineer pay hit $115,289 — above the $114,400 national median — while Systems Administrator pay fell to $95,295 even as national pay rose to $101,168.
Free archive edition. Published by WageScape as sent to subscribers; data as of September 2026.
Key indicators
- Dubuque unemployment rate: 3.3% — July 2026, up from 2.4% in April
- Network Engineer advertised pay: $115,289 — Metro now exceeds $114,400 national median
- Systems Administrator advertised pay: $95,295 — Down moderately vs $101,168 national, rising
- Iowa unemployment rate: 3.2% — Held for 4th straight month, ranks 8th nationally
Key takeaways
Network Engineer pay is outrunning the national market.
Metro median advertised pay of $115,289 now exceeds the national median of $114,400, a reversal for a traditionally lower-cost metro. This is consistent with scarce local connectivity and infrastructure talent commanding a premium that may not show up in national benchmarking tools.
Systems Administrator demand looks like it's eroding, not pausing.
Advertised pay fell moderately to $95,295 even as the national figure rose to $101,168 — a widening gap that tracks the national pattern of commodity IT operations roles facing permanent demand compression. Treat this as a signal to right-size generalist admin headcount rather than wait for a rebound.
Cybersecurity premiums are showing up locally, not just nationally.
Metro Cybersecurity Analyst pay rose significantly to $101,146, narrowing the gap with the $106,790 national median. Paired with Iowa's 7,649 AI-skill postings over the past year, this suggests local employers are competing harder for security-adjacent talent than headline Iowa tech employment growth (1.5% forecast) would imply.
Manufacturing softness may loosen the IT candidate pool.
John Deere Dubuque Works layoffs and broader Iowa manufacturing WARN activity (46% of affected workers statewide) could release adjacent technical and operations-technology talent into the local market. IT leaders hiring for infrastructure or industrial systems roles should watch whether this cohort surfaces in applicant pipelines over the next two months.
Median advertised pay by role — Dubuque, IA MSA
| Role | 25th percentile | Median advertised pay | 75th percentile | Metro trend | National median |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Data Scientist * | $98,304 | $124,902 | $144,776 | Stable | $148,250 |
| Systems Administrator | $69,792 | $95,295 | $98,465 | Moderate decline | $101,168 |
| Network Engineer * | $79,425 | $115,289 | $134,945 | Significant increase | $114,400 |
| Software Engineer | $93,732 | $112,092 | $112,428 | Stable | $153,652 |
| Help Desk/IT Support Specialist | $47,946 | $50,184 | $51,293 | Moderate increase | $53,644 |
| Cybersecurity Analyst * | $81,689 | $101,146 | $121,695 | Significant increase | $106,790 |
| IT Project Manager * | $76,954 | $115,024 | $127,032 | Stable | $117,530 |
* 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
Dubuque's 3.3% July unemployment rate and 58,700 non-farm payroll count reflect a labor pool still tighter than national (4.1%) and in line with Iowa's 3.2% reading, even as manufacturing continues to shed positions following the John Deere Dubuque Works layoffs. That manufacturing softness contrasts with continued tightness in professional and technical roles, consistent with statewide patterns where only education/health, construction, and financial activities are adding jobs while eight of eleven sectors flatline.
What it means
Network Engineer and Cybersecurity Analyst advertised pay are both moving up significantly locally — $115,289 and $101,146 respectively — while Systems Administrator pay is actually declining ($95,295, down moderately), a divergence that signals the metro labor market is repricing infrastructure security and connectivity skills above traditional sysadmin generalist work. That repricing has direct build-vs-buy consequences: commodity administration work is a stronger candidate for outsourcing or managed services as local wage data confirms employers are not bidding up that role, while network and security talent is worth retaining and investing in directly. Consider reviewing whether current systems administrator headcount should be redeployed toward higher-value cloud or security functions rather than backfilled at prior pay levels.
Looking ahead
Worth watching: Dubuque's unemployment rate has swung from 2.4% in April to 3.3% in July — watch whether September/October data (released in November) confirms a sustained loosening or reflects seasonal noise before adjusting hiring timelines.
Emerging pressure point: Systems Administrator pay is already diverging from the national trend; track whether this becomes a leading indicator for broader IT operations role compression locally as AI tooling absorbs routine admin tasks.
Early indicator: Iowa's Career Training Physical Expansion Grants, launched this month, target apprenticeship pipelines — monitor whether this produces a meaningfully larger junior IT talent pool in Dubuque given the state's broader 'job hugging' and entry-level hiring freeze.
Potential inflection point: Manufacturing WARN filings remain elevated statewide even as Iowa's overall WARN-affected worker count fell 58% year over year; a single large local filing could shift Dubuque's tight labor market narrative quickly given the metro's modest workforce base.
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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