Labor Market Pulse · Information Technology · September 2026
Information Technology Labor Market Report: Lebanon, PA MSA — September 2026
Lebanon's Sys Admin pay surges while network engineering pay slides.
Metro Systems Administrator pay jumped to $87,500 even as Network Engineer pay fell to $105,405 against a rising $114,400 national figure, pointing to a local market reshaping around operational roles over legacy network design.
Free archive edition. Published by WageScape as sent to subscribers; data as of September 2026.
Key indicators
- Lebanon unemployment rate: 3.6% — June 2026, down from 3.7% year ago
- Systems Administrator advertised pay: $87,500 — Up significantly, still below $101,168 national
- Network Engineer advertised pay: $105,405 — Down moderately vs $114,400 national, rising
- PA WARN filings (90 days): 17 notices / 1,899 workers — Statewide, none IT-sector specific yet
Key takeaways
Systems Administrator pay is spiking locally — retention risk is real.
Metro advertised pay for Systems Administrators climbed to $87,500, a significant increase that still trails the $101,168 national median but is closing the gap fast. Lebanon employers competing against regional and remote postings may need to move off legacy pay bands sooner than planned.
Network Engineer pay is falling against a rising national trend.
Metro Network Engineer pay dropped to $105,405 even as the national median rose to $114,400 — a divergence consistent with cloud migration compressing demand for traditional network design work locally. This widening gap may make Lebanon a harder market to recruit specialized network talent into, reinforcing the case for outsourcing non-core network functions.
Lebanon's thin labor pool amplifies statewide hiring friction.
Pennsylvania's tech job postings sit above last year's levels but hiring cycles have slowed, per Public Source reporting, and Lebanon's shallow private-sector base gives it even less cushion than metro peers like Pittsburgh. Expect longer time-to-fill for specialized IT roles regardless of headline unemployment staying low.
Help desk pay stability signals commodity-function outsourcing is viable.
Help Desk/IT Support advertised pay held flat at $51,885 locally and $53,644 nationally, consistent with national data showing AI adoption compressing demand for entry-level IT operations roles. Flat, predictable pay in this tier supports continued build-vs-buy evaluation toward contract or outsourced support staffing.
Median advertised pay by role — Lebanon, PA MSA
| Role | 25th percentile | Median advertised pay | 75th percentile | Metro trend | National median |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Data Scientist * | $117,479 | $147,800 | $164,186 | Moderate increase | $148,250 |
| Systems Administrator | $85,645 | $87,500 | $87,500 | Significant increase | $101,168 |
| Network Engineer | $65,766 | $105,405 | $106,364 | Moderate decline | $114,400 |
| Software Engineer * | $111,718 | $148,564 | $162,683 | Moderate increase | $153,652 |
| Help Desk/IT Support Specialist * | $41,941 | $51,885 | $57,905 | Stable | $53,644 |
| Cybersecurity Analyst * | $84,520 | $101,546 | $117,314 | Moderate increase | $106,790 |
| IT Project Manager * | $80,562 | $115,000 | $128,649 | Moderate 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
Lebanon's unemployment rate held at 3.6% in June 2026, down from 3.7% a year earlier, reflecting a metro labor market that remains structurally tight even as statewide job growth concentrates in healthcare and leisure rather than technology. With Lebanon's economy still anchored by manufacturing — 17.8% of county employment at an average $66,329 — the metro offers a thin, non-specialized bench for IT roles, forcing employers to recruit regionally rather than locally for infrastructure and security talent.
What it means
Metro Systems Administrator pay rose significantly to a $87,500 advertised median while Network Engineer pay fell moderately to $105,405 — a divergence that signals employers are bidding aggressively for hands-on operational talent while cooling demand for mid-tier network design work, likely as cloud migration reduces on-prem networking headcount needs. IT leaders in Lebanon should treat this as a signal that infrastructure roles requiring daily system ownership are becoming harder to backfill locally than roles tied to legacy network architecture. Consider reviewing whether current network engineering headcount reflects actual workload versus historical org design, and whether freed budget could fund retention increases for systems administration staff showing the sharpest local wage pressure.
Looking ahead
Worth watching: September 2026 BLS unemployment data for Lebanon has not yet been released; watch for confirmation of whether the 3.6% June reading holds or drifts toward the statewide 4.1% rate.
Emerging pressure point: Pennsylvania's information sector has shed jobs over the past year even as financial activities hit record highs. Monitor whether released information-sector workers feed into Lebanon's limited regional candidate pool for infrastructure and support roles.
Potential inflection point: Systems Administrator pay's significant local rise against moderate national growth may force a recalibration of pay bands within the next one to two hiring cycles if the trend continues into Q4.
Early indicator: Statewide WARN activity remains elevated with 17 filings affecting nearly 1,900 workers in the last 90 days; none are IT-specific yet, but continued volume in logistics and manufacturing could loosen adjacent labor supply relevant to IT support hiring.
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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