Labor Market Pulse · Information Technology · October 2026
Information Technology Labor Market Report: Knoxville, TN MSA — October 2026
Knoxville IT pay splits: security premiums up, network roles down sharply.
Cybersecurity analyst pay rose significantly to $92,850 in Knoxville even as network engineer pay fell to $95,000, a divergence against a metro unemployment rate holding at 3.2%.
Free archive edition. Published by WageScape as sent to subscribers; data as of October 2026.
Key indicators
- Knoxville MSA unemployment rate: 3.2% — Unchanged from July and from August 2025
- Metro labor force change: -0.9% — 463,056 in August vs 467,329 in July
- Job postings growth, Knoxville MSA: +4.5% — 9,451 postings in August, vs year-ago
- Tech sector layoffs, national YTD: 133,417 — Already exceeds full-year 2025 total
Key takeaways
Network engineer pay diverges sharply from the national trend.
Metro advertised pay for network engineers dropped significantly while national pay rose moderately, a gap that may suggest Knoxville employers are increasingly sourcing this function through regional staffing or remote arrangements over local direct hire. Compensation benchmarking for this role now needs a wider geographic lens.
Cybersecurity pay premium signals scarcity and strong demand.
Cybersecurity analyst advertised pay rose significantly in Knoxville, outpacing the moderate national gain, against a backdrop of computer and mathematical occupations projected to grow just 2.69% statewide through the decade. Organizations competing for this talent should expect local pay compression against national rates to continue narrowing.
Labor force exit is tightening the pool.
Knoxville's labor force shrank 0.9% between July and August while unemployment held flat at 3.2%, pointing to workers withdrawing from active search. A shrinking candidate pool alongside stable unemployment typically extends time-to-fill for specialized IT roles even without a hiring surge.
IT project manager pay gains outpace the national market.
Metro IT project manager pay rose significantly versus a stable national trend, a divergence that tracks with regional capital projects in nuclear energy and advanced manufacturing requiring technical program oversight. Expect this premium to persist as long as large infrastructure investments continue drawing project talent away from routine IT work.
Median advertised pay by role — Knoxville, TN MSA
| Role | 25th percentile | Median advertised pay | 75th percentile | Metro trend | National median |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Data Scientist | $98,141 | $117,228 | $124,526 | Stable | $145,881 |
| Systems Administrator | $76,798 | $88,064 | $95,344 | Moderate increase | $102,503 |
| Network Engineer | $74,394 | $95,000 | $99,924 | Significant decline | $115,757 |
| Software Engineer | $95,213 | $125,412 | $142,681 | Moderate increase | $154,403 |
| Help Desk/IT Support Specialist | $36,530 | $44,825 | $50,905 | Moderate decline | $53,129 |
| Cybersecurity Analyst | $82,354 | $92,850 | $92,850 | Significant increase | $107,327 |
| IT Project Manager | $81,822 | $106,325 | $122,500 | Significant increase | $118,150 |
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
Knoxville's unemployment rate held at 3.2% in August, unchanged from July and from a year earlier, even as the metro labor force contracted 0.9% month-over-month — a sign of workers leaving the active search pool as new slack entered the market. Job postings volume, a signal of hiring demand where one ad often covers several openings, rose 4.5% year-over-year to 9,451 new unique postings in August, with Oak Ridge's nuclear and advanced manufacturing buildout (Centrus's $560 million expansion, TNTalent's AI infrastructure funding) pulling technical labor toward adjacent sectors and tightening the pool available for core IT roles.
What it means
Metro-level network engineer pay has fallen significantly even as national network engineer pay rises, which may suggest Knoxville employers are filling infrastructure roles through regional or remote channels, a pattern consistent with the national shift toward outsourcing routine operations to lower-cost regions. Cybersecurity analyst and IT project manager pay are both up significantly locally, pointing to employers paying premiums to secure scarce specialized talent as they face a thin local pipeline that state projections show growing just 2.69% through the decade. Consider reviewing whether infrastructure and network roles are better suited to hybrid or managed-services staffing while reserving direct-hire premiums for cybersecurity and project leadership functions where local scarcity is most acute.
Looking ahead
Early indicator: Watch whether Oak Ridge and Centrus-linked expansions continue pulling technical talent from general IT infrastructure roles into nuclear and manufacturing projects, a shift that could widen the network engineer pay gap further.
Worth watching: Tennessee's 'low hire, low fire' pattern limits bench flexibility for security and cloud scaling; monitor whether Knoxville employers increase use of managed services or contract staffing to cover volatile project workloads.
Potential inflection point: National tech layoffs have already exceeded all of 2025 (133,417 through October 21), concentrated in large tech hubs. Track whether any of that displaced talent surfaces in the Knoxville candidate pool, particularly for cybersecurity and cloud roles.
Expected: September 2026 metro unemployment and labor force data, delayed by the national BLS release calendar, should clarify whether August's labor force contraction was a one-month anomaly or the start of a trend worth factoring into headcount planning.
Sources
- Knoxville Chamber of Commerce / BLS — Knoxville MSA unemployment rate and labor force change, August 2026
- Knoxville Chamber of Commerce ECO Report — Job postings volume up 4.5% year-over-year in Knoxville MSA
- Tennessee Department of Labor & Workforce Development — Computer and mathematical occupations projected to grow 2.69% statewide
- Layoffs tracking aggregator — Tech sector layoffs exceed 133,000 nationally through October 21, 2026
- Knoxville Chamber of Commerce ECO Report — Centrus $560 million nuclear fuel expansion announcement
- Tennessee Department of Labor & Workforce Development — Tennessee labor market shows 'low hire, low fire' dynamics
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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