Labor Market Pulse · Information Technology · September 2026
Information Technology Labor Market Report: LA NONMETROPOLITAN AREA — September 2026
Louisiana IT pay lags the nation, but security roles are pulling away.
Statewide IT pay averages $93,813 against a national benchmark above $109K, yet local Cybersecurity Analyst pay ($105,621) and Network Engineer pay ($110,000) are rising faster than national medians.
Free archive edition. Published by WageScape as sent to subscribers; data as of September 2026.
Key indicators
- Louisiana avg IT salary: $93,813 — vs $109K+ national average; ranked 50th nationally
- Entry-level IT pay (LA): $40,319 — vs national IT entry benchmarks well above $50K
- Parish unemployment range: 3.6%–13.4% — West Feliciana vs East Carroll, June 2026
- Statewide unemployment: 4.2% — August 2026, unchanged from July
Key takeaways
Security and network pay are decoupling from the state's IT wage floor.
Cybersecurity Analyst ($105,621) and Network Engineer ($110,000) advertised pay in this metro sit near or above national medians, even as overall Louisiana IT pay trails the country by roughly $15,000. Treat these roles as a separate compensation track from general IT staffing rather than applying a statewide discount.
Entry-level IT compensation is a flight risk, not just a cost line.
Entry-level Louisiana IT roles average $40,319 against a national IT average above $109K, and limited pay progression with seniority compounds the gap. Expect junior staff attrition toward remote employers and managed service providers that can offer faster advancement.
Systems Administrator pay is softening against a tightening security market.
Metro Systems Administrator pay ($95,096) trails the national median ($101,168) and is rising only moderately, while Cybersecurity Analyst pay is rising significantly. This spread supports reallocating headcount budget from general administration toward security-adjacent hires rather than across-the-board raises.
Lake Charles industrial labor tightness is spilling into IT-adjacent hiring.
LNG and petrochemical megaprojects are pulling skilled trades into 40-plus day time-to-fill cycles, and this competition for technical labor extends to industrial control systems and OT-adjacent IT roles in Southwest Louisiana. Build-vs-buy decisions for infrastructure support in that corridor should assume extended sourcing timelines.
Median advertised pay by role — LA NONMETROPOLITAN AREA
| Role | 25th percentile | Median advertised pay | 75th percentile | Metro trend | National median |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Data Scientist | $123,300 | $155,000 | $166,280 | Significant increase | $148,250 |
| Systems Administrator | $76,900 | $95,096 | $106,202 | Moderate increase | $101,168 |
| Network Engineer | $56,982 | $110,000 | $129,050 | Significant increase | $114,400 |
| Software Engineer | $118,000 | $153,598 | $170,635 | Stable | $153,652 |
| Help Desk/IT Support Specialist | $44,326 | $54,668 | $64,144 | Moderate increase | $53,644 |
| Cybersecurity Analyst | $87,412 | $105,621 | $125,140 | Significant increase | $106,790 |
| IT Project Manager | $80,735 | $115,138 | $125,776 | Moderate increase | $117,530 |
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
Louisiana's nonmetropolitan labor market remains bifurcated — East Carroll Parish unemployment at 13.4% against West Feliciana at 3.6% — while statewide IT salary compression (average IT pay $93,813, ranked 50th nationally) continues to push experienced technologists toward out-of-state remote roles or Lake Charles-area industrial contracts. Statewide unemployment held at 4.2% in August, but the real pressure on IT hiring comes from wage stagnation relative to national benchmarks rather than any labor shortage in raw headcount terms.
What it means
Advertised pay for Network Engineer ($110,000) and Cybersecurity Analyst ($105,621) in this metro now runs close to or above national medians, a signal that scarce technical talent is commanding premiums even where broader IT pay lags badly behind the country. This divergence suggests employers should stop benchmarking IT roles against statewide averages and instead track role-specific movement — treating infrastructure and security positions as a distinct, tightening submarket from commodity support functions. Consider reviewing compensation for network and security roles against national rather than state medians before the next hiring cycle, since local candidates in these specialties increasingly have leverage to go remote.
Looking ahead
Expected release: BLS Metropolitan Area Employment and Unemployment data for September 2026 publishes October 28 — the first chance to see whether nonmetro parish-level disparities (13.4% vs 3.6% unemployment) narrowed or widened into Q4.
Emerging pressure point: Louisiana's 18% year-over-year growth in technology sector jobs, concentrated around defense-tech and LNG-adjacent projects, is running against a shrinking pool of mid-career technical talent. Watch whether this pushes advertised pay for network and security roles further above national medians.
Worth watching: National WARN activity remains elevated at technology and telecom employers (Amazon, Meta, Verizon, Oracle), while Louisiana layoff filings are down 63% year-over-year. Monitor whether displaced out-of-state tech talent begins surfacing in Louisiana's remote-eligible candidate pool.
Potential inflection point: Integer Technologies' LSU-area expansion is adding 23 defense-tech jobs averaging $130K, 103% above parish averages. If similar premium-pay projects continue landing in nonmetro parishes, they could reset local expectations for specialized IT compensation faster than statewide averages adjust.
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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