Labor Market Pulse · Information Technology · October 2026
Information Technology Labor Market Report: Holland-Grand Haven, MI MSA — October 2026
Holland IT pay splits: support and infrastructure up, software down.
Local Help Desk pay climbed to $62,192 against a falling $53,129 national median, while Software Engineer pay dropped to $105,504 — 32% below the $154,403 national figure.
Free archive edition. Published by WageScape as sent to subscribers; data as of October 2026.
Key indicators
- Help Desk advertised pay (metro): $62,192 — vs $53,129 national, which is down moderately
- Software Engineer advertised pay (metro): $105,504 — 32% below $154,403 national median
- Ottawa County unemployment: 3.7% — vs 5.0% Michigan, 4.1% U.S. (Sept 2025 data)
- Michigan IT employment growth, 5-yr: 8% — vs 1% statewide job growth overall
Key takeaways
Support roles are commanding a local premium over the national market.
Help Desk/IT Support advertised pay rose to $62,192 locally, up significantly, while the national median fell to $53,129. A $9,000 local gap for entry-tier support work points to acute scarcity specific to Holland — a structural case for evaluating managed support or regional staffing models.
Software Engineer pay is dropping in Holland while holding steady nationally.
Local Software Engineer pay fell sharply to $105,504 against a stable $154,403 national median, a roughly 32 percent gap. Consider whether this reflects a shrinking local pool of senior-level postings or employers shifting development work toward remote/national hiring amid a scarcity of local developers.
Network Engineer and Systems Administrator pay is accelerating together.
Both roles show significant upward movement locally — Network Engineer to $118,081, above the $115,757 national figure, and Systems Administrator to $101,852. Parallel gains across both roles point to sustained local investment in on-prem and hybrid infrastructure, consistent with national data showing data center and infrastructure hiring outperforming cloud-native tech-hub roles.
Michigan IT wage compression risk is building beneath flat state unemployment.
State IT Manager pay averages $147,510 against $95,620 for IT overall, a gap employers will need to defend as experienced technicians in infrastructure and security roles see local pay climb toward management-level compensation. Current trends may warrant reviewing internal pay bands before compression erodes the incentive to advance into leadership roles.
Median advertised pay by role — Holland-Grand Haven, MI MSA
| Role | 25th percentile | Median advertised pay | 75th percentile | Metro trend | National median |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Data Scientist * | $109,397 | $141,000 | $163,300 | Stable | $145,881 |
| Systems Administrator | $80,643 | $101,852 | $101,852 | Significant increase | $102,503 |
| Network Engineer | $66,504 | $118,081 | $118,552 | Significant increase | $115,757 |
| Software Engineer | $49,237 | $105,504 | $125,375 | Significant decline | $154,403 |
| Help Desk/IT Support Specialist | $47,243 | $62,192 | $65,000 | Significant increase | $53,129 |
| Cybersecurity Analyst * | $84,765 | $99,237 | $120,000 | Moderate increase | $107,327 |
| IT Project Manager * | $85,840 | $112,166 | $124,800 | Stable | $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
Ottawa County's labor force contracted alongside the rest of Michigan's 18 labor market areas this fall, even as 85 percent of area employers report stable or growing sales and a third plan expansion within three years — a combination that points to demand outpacing available workers. That tightness is compounding in IT: Michigan's IT employment has grown 8 percent over five years against 1 percent statewide job growth, and local advertised pay for Network Engineers and Help Desk/IT Support roles is rising sharply while Software Engineer pay has moved sharply lower, signaling a market re-pricing technical roles unevenly.
What it means
Divergent local pay trends — Help Desk pay up significantly to $62,192 while Software Engineer pay falls to $105,504, well below the $154,403 national median — suggest Holland-area employers are competing hardest for infrastructure and support talent while software development roles face less local wage pressure, possibly reflecting remote-work competition from national employers or a thinner local bench of senior developer candidates. With statewide IT Support Technician pay averaging $51,120 against local advertised Help Desk pay of $62,192, the gap may justify revisiting which support tiers are staffed locally versus routed to managed service providers. Consider reviewing whether current infrastructure and support headcount plans account for local wage acceleration, or whether build-vs-buy tradeoffs for Level 1/2 support now favor outsourcing given the premium required to retain talent in-market.
Looking ahead
Early indicator: Ottawa County's labor force decline (3,100 workers year-over-year through September 2025) combined with 87 percent of in-demand jobs requiring skilled labor suggests the infrastructure and support pay gains seen this month could persist into Q1 2026 hiring cycles.
Worth watching: H-1B certified filings in Holland fell to just 4 in FY2026 Q1, down a third year-over-year — a thin pipeline that may push employers further toward raising advertised pay for scarce local infrastructure and security talent, reducing reliance on visa-sponsored hires.
Emerging pressure point: National tech layoffs have already exceeded 133,000 workers through October, even as local Software Engineer pay is falling — watch whether displaced national talent entering remote candidate pools suppresses local developer compensation further over the next two months.
Potential inflection point: With a third of area employers planning expansion projects averaging $7.5 million and 12 new jobs each, watch whether infrastructure buildout translates into further Network Engineer and Systems Administrator pay acceleration locally, mirroring the national data center hiring boom.
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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