Labor Market Pulse · Information Technology · September 2026
Information Technology Labor Market Report: Lawrence, KS MSA — September 2026
Lawrence IT pay splits: network engineers surge, admins slide.
Metro Network Engineer pay rose to a $90,500 median while Systems Administrator pay fell to $78,926, even as Douglas County unemployment edged up to 4.2%.
Free archive edition. Published by WageScape as sent to subscribers; data as of September 2026.
Key indicators
- Douglas County unemployment: 4.2% — Up from 4.1% in July 2026
- Network Engineer advertised pay: $90,500 — Metro median, up significantly YoY
- Systems Administrator advertised pay: $78,926 — vs $101,168 national median
- KC-area tech postings growth: 7.4% — vs 1.6% national growth, 2024-2025
Key takeaways
Network Engineer pay is repricing faster than the rest of the stack.
Metro median climbed to $90,500, a significant increase that outpaces local Software Engineer and Systems Administrator movement. Advertised pay gains this concentrated typically reflect genuine scarcity rather than broad-based inflation — treat this role as a retention watch item even if overall IT budgets stay flat.
Systems Administrator pay decline may mask a structural shift, not a pay cut.
Metro median dropped to $78,926 even as the national figure rose to $101,168 — a widening gap that is consistent with the national pattern of traditional IT operations roles facing demand compression as cloud and AI tooling absorb routine administration. Falling local advertised pay for this role may reflect fewer, lower-complexity postings rather than employers paying incumbents less, which changes how leaders should interpret benchmarking data for retention decisions.
Entry-level pay strength signals a widening experience gap, not a tight market win.
Help Desk/IT Support advertised pay rose significantly to $50,857 locally, tracking the national entry-level bottleneck that is creating downstream shortages of mid-level talent employers actually rely on. Organizations leaning on external hiring for entry-level support may want to weigh that against the cost of building internal pipelines before mid-career gaps widen further.
Flat county job growth hides a talent poaching risk from Kansas City.
Douglas County added just 50 jobs year-over-year through February even as Kansas City tech postings grew 7.4% versus 1.6% nationally. Lawrence employers competing for the same specialized talent pool without matching that pay trajectory risk losing mid-career IT staff to commuting distance rather than to layoffs or attrition driven by local conditions.
Median advertised pay by role — Lawrence, KS MSA
| Role | 25th percentile | Median advertised pay | 75th percentile | Metro trend | National median |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Data Scientist * | $108,192 | $139,921 | $160,525 | Significant increase | $148,250 |
| Systems Administrator * | $66,498 | $78,926 | $86,573 | Moderate decline | $101,168 |
| Network Engineer | $45,666 | $90,500 | $106,989 | Significant increase | $114,400 |
| Software Engineer | $79,535 | $109,183 | $140,750 | Moderate decline | $153,652 |
| Help Desk/IT Support Specialist | $39,134 | $50,857 | $54,500 | Significant increase | $53,644 |
| Cybersecurity Analyst * | $76,577 | $90,910 | $106,943 | Significant increase | $106,790 |
| IT Project Manager * | $81,686 | $105,254 | $120,168 | Significant 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
Lawrence metro unemployment ticked up to 4.2% in August from 4.1% in July, with Douglas County employment essentially flat over the year while construction and leisure/hospitality gains offset declines in manufacturing, financial activities, and retail. Kansas City tech job postings growing nearly five times faster than the national average are pulling cross-metro attention toward Lawrence's IT talent pool even as local wage growth diverges sharply by role.
What it means
Divergent advertised pay movement — Network Engineer up significantly to a $90,500 metro median while Systems Administrator fell to $78,926 and Software Engineer slipped to $109,183 — suggests Lawrence employers are repricing infrastructure and security roles upward while commodity administrative functions face compressed local demand, consistent with the national shift toward specialized cloud and security hiring. Flat county job growth paired with KC-area postings outpacing national growth by nearly 5x signals Lawrence IT talent is a flight risk to higher-paying regional employers rather than a risk of local displacement. Consider reviewing whether Systems Administrator and help desk functions are candidates for contract or managed-service delivery while reserving permanent headcount budget for network engineering and security specializations showing sustained upward pay pressure.
Looking ahead
Worth watching: Douglas County's unemployment rate has drifted from 4.1% to 4.2% over two months; watch whether this stabilizes or continues trending toward the 6.3% seasonally adjusted reading seen in February, which would materially change local hiring leverage.
Emerging pressure point: Kansas City tech postings growing nearly five times the national rate creates sustained upward pressure on Lawrence network engineering and security pay as employers compete across a shared commuting labor shed.
Early indicator: Management roles now represent 22% of KC-area tech postings, up from 13% in 2019 — watch whether Lawrence employers see similar upward pressure on IT leadership and team-lead compensation as the regional management layer thickens.
Potential inflection point: Zero Kansas WARN notices filed in the last 90 days as of September 25 suggests no imminent influx of displaced IT talent into the local candidate pool, meaning build-vs-buy decisions should assume continued tight sourcing conditions rather than near-term supply relief.
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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