Labor Market Pulse · Information Technology · September 2026
Information Technology Labor Market Report: Green Bay, WI MSA — September 2026
Green Bay IT pay splits: security up, infrastructure down.
Cybersecurity Analyst pay climbed to $129,326 in Green Bay — above the $106,790 national median — while Systems Administrator pay fell to $79,522 against a rising $101,168 national figure.
Free archive edition. Published by WageScape as sent to subscribers; data as of September 2026.
Key indicators
- Green Bay MSA unemployment: 3.1% — vs 4.56% long-run metro average
- Cybersecurity Analyst advertised pay: $129,326 — vs $106,790 national median
- Systems Administrator advertised pay: $79,522 — down significant vs $101,168 national
- Wisconsin WARN notices, 2026: 56 notices / 3,914 workers — down 7% from 2025
Key takeaways
Systems Administrator pay is falling while national rates climb.
Metro advertised pay for Systems Administrator dropped significantly to $79,522 even as the national median rose to $101,168, a gap wide enough to signal local demand compression rather than noise. Current conditions suggest this function is a strong outsourcing candidate rather than a role to defend with local pay increases.
Cybersecurity Analyst pay now outpaces the national figure.
Local advertised pay for Cybersecurity Analyst hit $129,326, above the $106,790 national median, an unusual inversion that may reflect a thin regional bench competing against national remote-work offers. Organizations should evaluate whether current internal pay bands can hold against this premium before losing incumbents to counteroffers.
Help Desk pay decline tracks a national flattening, not a local anomaly.
Metro Help Desk/IT Support pay fell moderately to $53,245 while the national median held flat near $53,644, consistent with AI-driven compression of entry-tier support work cited by Addison Group. Consider shifting hiring volume in this tier toward contract or managed-service arrangements rather than permanent headcount.
Data Scientist pay growth outruns the metro's thin tech base.
Wisconsin projects 43% growth in data scientist roles statewide even as the metro's Information sector shrinks, and local advertised pay for the role rose significantly to $107,372. Mismatch between projected demand and current local supply suggests build-vs-buy decisions should lean toward contracted analytics capacity while internal pipelines mature.
Median advertised pay by role — Green Bay, WI MSA
| Role | 25th percentile | Median advertised pay | 75th percentile | Metro trend | National median |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Data Scientist | $46,266 | $107,372 | $135,554 | Significant increase | $148,250 |
| Systems Administrator | $67,813 | $79,522 | $88,267 | Significant decline | $101,168 |
| Network Engineer | $74,766 | $88,957 | $94,276 | Moderate decline | $114,400 |
| Software Engineer | $107,194 | $130,019 | $144,770 | Moderate increase | $153,652 |
| Help Desk/IT Support Specialist | $46,216 | $53,245 | $55,244 | Moderate decline | $53,644 |
| Cybersecurity Analyst | $107,669 | $129,326 | $132,931 | 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
Green Bay MSA unemployment held at 3.1% in May 2026 against a long-run metro average of 4.56%, a tightness consistent with manufacturing and healthcare employers continuing to post roles even as statewide hiring has turned low-hire, low-fire. Brown County nonfarm employment rose to roughly 180,800 jobs by May, but Wisconsin's Information sector contracted 0.4% over the trailing year, suggesting the metro's tightness is concentrated in production and clinical labor rather than technology headcount.
What it means
Divergence between falling advertised pay for Systems Administrator ($79,522, down significant) and Network Engineer ($88,957, down moderate) against rising Cybersecurity Analyst ($129,326, up significant) and Data Scientist ($107,372, up significant) roles indicates Green Bay employers are reallocating IT budgets away from traditional infrastructure maintenance toward specialized risk and analytics capability, mirroring the national skill-deprecation pattern CompTIA flagged for 2026. With Wisconsin's structural shortfall of roughly 1,500 college-educated arrivals annually limiting external pipelines for advanced roles, retention economics for cybersecurity and data talent now outweigh recruiting economics. Consider evaluating whether commodity infrastructure and support functions are better suited to outsourced or contract staffing while reserving premium internal compensation for security and analytics headcount.
Looking ahead
Worth watching: Brown County nonfarm employment has risen steadily since January, but watch whether July-August BLS releases confirm continued growth or reveal seasonal softening once August 2026 metro data is published.
Emerging pressure point: Statewide WARN filings are down 7% year over year, but manufacturing remains the dominant layoff category; any uptick in Green Bay-area manufacturing notices could release adjacent IT and operations-technology talent into the local pool.
Early indicator: National cybersecurity pay is accelerating broadly, with senior roles reaching $400K per Lorien Global; monitor whether this pulls Green Bay's security talent toward remote national employers given the metro's already-elevated local pay.
Potential inflection point: Microsoft's regional data center build-out has cycled thousands of construction workers through nearby sites; track whether hyperscaler presence begins generating local cloud and infrastructure vendor demand that shows up in advertised IT postings.
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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