Labor Market Pulse · Information Technology · October 2026
Information Technology Labor Market Report: Elkhart-Goshen, IN MSA — October 2026
Elkhart cybersecurity pay breaks away as manufacturing stays soft.
Elkhart's Cybersecurity Analyst pay rose significantly to $76,723 even as manufacturing employment held 1.8% below year-ago levels and Systems Administrator pay slipped to $84,000.
Free archive edition. Published by WageScape as sent to subscribers; data as of October 2026.
Key indicators
- Elkhart-Goshen unemployment rate: 3.8% — Down from 4.1% in July; vs 4.2% national (Sept.)
- Manufacturing employment vs. year ago: -1.8% — Despite 500 jobs added in August 2026
- Cybersecurity Analyst advertised pay: $76,723 — Up significantly; vs $107,327 national median
- Indiana employed population change: -8,800 — Over past year, despite 63.1% participation rate
Key takeaways
Cybersecurity pay is breaking away from the rest of the metro.
Elkhart's Cybersecurity Analyst advertised pay rose significantly this month even as Systems Administrator and Software Engineer pay moved down, a divergence that suggests employers are competing hard for security-specific skills while treating generalist infrastructure roles as more replaceable locally. Compensation strategy should treat these as separate markets, each with its own IT pay curve.
Manufacturing's soft patch has not loosened the IT labor pool.
Manufacturing employment sits 1.8% below year-ago levels even as the metro added jobs in August, yet Indiana's overall employed population shrank by about 8,800 workers over the year. IT leaders counting on manufacturing softness to ease technical hiring should recalibrate — the broader labor contraction appears to be absorbing available talent.
Network Engineer pay gap with the nation is widening.
Metro Network Engineer pay held flat at $71,653 while the national median climbed to $115,757 with moderate upward movement, a spread that may reflect Elkhart's reliance on on-prem manufacturing infrastructure. Retention risk grows for engineers with transferable cloud skills who can see the national gap.
Project Manager compensation signals rising coordination demands.
IT Project Manager pay rose moderately to $114,590 locally, now within striking distance of the $118,150 national figure, which may suggest Elkhart employers are investing in execution discipline around infrastructure modernization or ERP-type projects tied to manufacturing operations. This role looks like one where local employers are paying to close the gap with national markets, a pattern distinct from most other IT roles here.
Median advertised pay by role — Elkhart-Goshen, IN MSA
| Role | 25th percentile | Median advertised pay | 75th percentile | Metro trend | National median |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Data Scientist * | $94,755 | $126,238 | $147,016 | Stable | $145,881 |
| Systems Administrator | $69,673 | $84,000 | $91,875 | Moderate decline | $102,503 |
| Network Engineer | $62,438 | $71,653 | $82,500 | Stable | $115,757 |
| Software Engineer | $100,446 | $109,101 | $118,926 | Moderate decline | $154,403 |
| Help Desk/IT Support Specialist | $41,442 | $48,888 | $52,000 | Stable | $53,129 |
| Cybersecurity Analyst | $73,784 | $76,723 | $79,672 | Significant increase | $107,327 |
| IT Project Manager * | $89,657 | $114,590 | $123,652 | 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
Elkhart-Goshen's unemployment rate improved to 3.8% in August from 4.1% in July, yet manufacturing employment remains 1.8% below year-ago levels even after adding 500 jobs that month, signaling an economy still exposed to RV and mobile home production cycles despite headline improvement. Indiana's statewide labor force participation of 63.1% outpaces the 61.8% national figure, but the state's employed population fell by roughly 8,800 over the past year, a contraction consistent with a shrinking labor pool that constrains external IT recruiting pipelines in secondary manufacturing markets like Elkhart.
What it means
Elkhart's production-heavy economy and shrinking labor force mean IT leaders should expect external hiring pools for infrastructure and support roles to stay thin, while specialized cybersecurity and cloud talent command premiums disproportionate to the metro's cost base — Cybersecurity Analyst pay here rose significantly even as Systems Administrator pay moved down, pointing to a bifurcated local market. Manufacturing's dependence on legacy on-prem systems and plant-floor connectivity keeps infrastructure and network roles structurally necessary locally, even as national data shows network engineer pay accelerating faster nationally than in Elkhart, widening the gap between what this metro pays and what competing markets offer. Consider reviewing retention budgets for cybersecurity and project management talent specifically, where local advertised pay is now moving against the broader metro trend of flat or declining rates.
Looking ahead
Worth watching: Manufacturing employment remains below year-ago levels despite August job additions; a renewed downturn in RV or mobile home production could release skilled on-prem infrastructure and support talent into the local market within the next quarter.
Emerging pressure point: Cybersecurity Analyst pay is rising significantly locally while most other IT roles stay flat or decline — watch whether this premium persists into November hiring cycles or proves to be a short-term spike tied to a handful of postings.
Early indicator: Indiana's shrinking employed population alongside a stable-to-rising participation rate suggests workers may be exiting the labor force; track whether this tightens candidate pools further for infrastructure and support roles into early 2027.
Potential inflection point: National data center and infrastructure hiring is accelerating 20% over three months while tech hubs pull back — watch whether Indiana's data center investment activity, including the Lebanon LEAP District buildout, begins drawing Elkhart-area infrastructure talent toward central Indiana projects.
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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