Labor Market Pulse · Information Technology · October 2026
Information Technology Labor Market Report: KS NONMETROPOLITAN AREA — October 2026
Nonmetro Kansas IT pay splits sharply by role and county.
Cybersecurity Analyst pay rose to $85,000 while Help Desk/IT Support fell to $44,451, against a county unemployment spread running from 2.9% in Sheridan to 6.3% in Bourbon.
Free archive edition. Published by WageScape as sent to subscribers; data as of October 2026.
Key indicators
- County unemployment spread: 2.9%–6.3% — Sheridan County vs Bourbon County, Aug 2026
- Kansas statewide unemployment: 3.8% — Unchanged from Aug 2026 and Sept 2025
- Data center job postings index: 247 — vs baseline 100 in 2024
- Kansas nonfarm payrolls: -2,100 — Sept 2026 month-over-month, private sector -2,300
Key takeaways
Cybersecurity pay is climbing while support pay erodes.
Cybersecurity Analyst advertised pay rose to a moderate $85,000 local median while Help Desk/IT Support fell significantly to $44,451 — a signal that security hiring is treated as protective investment even as frontline support roles face downward pressure. Budget reallocation toward security appears to be happening at support's expense in this market.
Systems Administrator pay gap versus national median has widened.
Local advertised pay of $79,044 sits roughly 23% below the national $102,503, a gap wide enough to signal either a cost-of-living advantage or a retention risk if administrators discover remote-national opportunities. Data center buildout competing for the same skill set only sharpens the exposure.
IT Project Manager pay surge may reflect data center project load.
Advertised pay for IT Project Managers rose significantly to $105,231, outpacing a stable national figure of $118,150's trend — consistent with infrastructure and data center build-out projects requiring coordination talent that nonmetro employers are now competing for directly.
County-level unemployment spread complicates uniform pay benchmarking.
A 3.4-point spread between Bourbon County (6.3%) and Sheridan County (2.9%) means a single nonmetro pay strategy likely overpays in some counties and underpays in others. Location-specific benchmarking better protects both cost control and retention than a blended nonmetro average.
Median advertised pay by role — KS NONMETROPOLITAN AREA
| Role | 25th percentile | Median advertised pay | 75th percentile | Metro trend | National median |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Data Scientist | $108,192 | $123,735 | $132,091 | Significant decline | $145,881 |
| Systems Administrator | $66,498 | $79,044 | $85,348 | Moderate decline | $102,503 |
| Network Engineer | $67,930 | $91,085 | $101,555 | Stable | $115,757 |
| Software Engineer | $97,430 | $132,669 | $147,700 | Stable | $154,403 |
| Help Desk/IT Support Specialist | $38,303 | $44,451 | $47,288 | Significant decline | $53,129 |
| Cybersecurity Analyst | $76,055 | $85,000 | $86,947 | Moderate increase | $107,327 |
| IT Project Manager | $88,800 | $105,231 | $108,515 | 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
Rural Kansas counties show a widening split this month — Bourbon County unemployment at 6.3% against Sheridan County's 2.9%, with statewide unemployment holding at 3.8% even as total nonfarm payrolls fell 2,100 in September and labor force participation slipped to 66.4%. Data center construction across the state continues pulling skilled infrastructure labor out of traditional IT roles, with data center job postings — a signal of hiring demand, where one ad often covers several openings — up to an indexed 247 versus a 2024 baseline of 100, tightening the pool of on-prem talent available to nonmetro employers.
What it means
County-level unemployment disparities mean sourcing strategy should vary by location within the same nonmetro footprint — a support or infrastructure role based near Bourbon County faces a looser labor pool than one near Sheridan or Riley County, where competition for talent is sharper. Data center buildout absorbing systems and network talent statewide, combined with a Systems Administrator advertised median of $79,044 locally against $102,503 nationally, strengthens the case for cloud migration to reduce dependence on a shrinking local infrastructure labor supply. Consider evaluating which infrastructure functions can shift to managed or cloud-hosted models before local data center expansion further constrains on-prem hiring.
Looking ahead
Early indicator: Watch whether data center postings — a signal of hiring demand, where one ad often covers several openings — indexed at 247, up from a 2024 baseline of 100, continue climbing into November; further acceleration would intensify competition for network and systems talent already in short local supply.
Worth watching: Kansas's October Labor Report, due November 20, will show whether September's 2,100 nonfarm job decline was a one-month dip or the start of a trend affecting IT hiring budgets tied to broader state payroll growth.
Potential inflection point: Cybersecurity Analyst pay is up moderately against a national cybersecurity market already running tight — if the gap narrows further, nonmetro employers may lose their current cost advantage for security hires to remote-first competitors.
Emerging pressure point: Help Desk/IT Support pay fell significantly both locally and nationally this month, raising the question of whether support functions are increasingly candidates for outsourcing or automation as an alternative to continued local hiring.
Sources
- USA Facts / BLS Local Area Unemployment Statistics — Bourbon County unemployment at 6.3%, Sheridan County at 2.9%
- Kansas Department of Labor — Kansas statewide unemployment at 3.8%, nonfarm payrolls down 2,100
- Indeed Hiring Lab / Kansas labor market research — Data center job postings index at 247 vs 2024 baseline of 100
- Kansas Department of Labor — Kansas labor force participation rate at 66.4% in September
- Indeed Hiring Lab — IT systems & solutions advertised wage gains of 4.7% year-over-year
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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