Labor Market Pulse · Information Technology · September 2026
Information Technology Labor Market Report: Fond du Lac, WI MSA — September 2026
Fond du Lac Network Engineer pay craters as metro jobs shrink.
Local Network Engineer advertised pay fell to $63,000 against a national median of $114,400, even as the metro lost an average of 50 jobs a month through 2026.
Free archive edition. Published by WageScape as sent to subscribers; data as of September 2026.
Key indicators
- Metro unemployment rate: 3.2% — Up from prior months, vs 4.1% national
- Metro monthly job losses: -50/month avg — 2026 YTD, vs +58/month gain in 2025
- Network Engineer pay gap: $63,000 vs $114,400 — Metro median vs national median
- WI data scientist job growth: 43% projected — Adding ~1,230 jobs statewide
Key takeaways
Network Engineer pay is collapsing locally while demand rises nationally.
Metro advertised pay for Network Engineers dropped significantly to $63,000, even as the national median climbed to $114,400. That gap is wide enough to suggest local postings are being filled by a shrinking, locally-anchored candidate pool rather than priced to compete regionally — a risk if those incumbents become mobile.
Help desk compression looks structural, not a local anomaly.
Local Help Desk pay fell moderately to $49,796 against a stable national figure, tracking CompTIA data showing traditional support roles facing permanent demand compression as AI absorbs lower-tier ticket volume. Reallocating support headcount toward security or cloud tiers may do more for retention than raising entry-level pay.
Software Engineer and Project Manager pay diverge from the metro's job losses.
Both roles saw significant-to-moderate local pay increases even as the broader metro shed roughly 50 jobs a month this year. This divergence is consistent with Wisconsin's talent-attraction shortfall forcing premium pay specifically for transformation-adjacent roles, not a broad-based tightening.
Soft metro unemployment doesn't mean soft IT hiring.
A 3.2% unemployment rate and below-2019 employment levels suggest labor slack, but Wisconsin's projected 43-44% growth in data science and computer research occupations shows specialized tech demand decoupling from general conditions. Treat metro-wide labor softness as a poor proxy for IT-specific hiring difficulty.
Median advertised pay by role — Fond du Lac, WI MSA
| Role | 25th percentile | Median advertised pay | 75th percentile | Metro trend | National median |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Data Scientist * | $93,382 | $123,893 | $140,000 | Stable | $148,250 |
| Systems Administrator * | $74,294 | $86,227 | $96,000 | Stable | $101,168 |
| Network Engineer | $63,000 | $63,000 | $65,291 | Significant decline | $114,400 |
| Software Engineer | $94,348 | $112,473 | $131,158 | Significant increase | $153,652 |
| Help Desk/IT Support Specialist * | $42,640 | $49,796 | $54,519 | Moderate decline | $53,644 |
| Cybersecurity Analyst * | $76,854 | $95,817 | $108,948 | Significant increase | $106,790 |
| IT Project Manager * | $95,371 | $122,314 | $131,709 | Moderate increase | $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
Fond du Lac's unemployment rate ticked up to 3.2% in August as the metro continued losing an average of 50 jobs per month through 2026, a softening that puts nonfarm employment at 54.9 thousand and still below 2019 levels. Statewide, Wisconsin's low-hire, low-fire posture is masking a sharp bifurcation in tech demand — data science and computer research roles are projected to grow over 40% even as general payroll growth stalls, meaning the metro's soft headline numbers obscure real competition for specialized IT talent.
What it means
Soft local job growth gives IT leaders cover to slow hiring for commodity infrastructure and support roles, but that same softness is unevenly distributed — Network Engineer advertised pay locally has fallen to $63,000, nearly half the national median of $114,400, suggesting local employers are either mispricing the role or watching candidates route around the metro entirely. Meanwhile Software Engineer and IT Project Manager pay are both rising locally, consistent with Wisconsin's documented talent-attraction shortfall forcing employers to pay retention premiums for roles tied to digital transformation rather than keep-the-lights-on operations. Consider reviewing network engineering compensation specifically against the national figure before assuming the local labor surplus extends to specialized infrastructure talent.
Looking ahead
Emerging pressure point: Watch whether the Network Engineer pay gap versus national rates widens further or starts correcting — a sustained gap may indicate the metro is losing competitiveness for infrastructure talent willing to relocate or go remote.
Early indicator: Fond du Lac's monthly job losses, if they continue past Q3, may begin releasing adjacent talent (finance, operations) into the local candidate pool; monitor whether any of that supply has transferable IT-adjacent skills worth recruiting into support or project roles.
Potential inflection point: Microsoft's hyperscale data center buildout near Wisconsin is cycling through thousands of construction workers; track whether any announced cloud or network operations hiring follows construction completion, which could pull infrastructure talent out of smaller regional employers.
Worth watching: National information-sector job losses in August alongside Wisconsin's -0.4% information sector growth suggest tech employment softness may be broader than Fond du Lac alone — confirm whether planned headcount additions still make sense against that backdrop before finalizing Q4 budgets.
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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