Labor Market Pulse · Information Technology · September 2026
Information Technology Labor Market Report: Lima, OH MSA — September 2026
Lima IT pay splits: infrastructure falls, security and dev rise.
Local Systems Administrator pay fell to $68,292 against a national median of $101,168, while Cybersecurity Analyst pay rose to $99,737, underscoring where Lima employers are concentrating compensation investment.
Free archive edition. Published by WageScape as sent to subscribers; data as of September 2026.
Key indicators
- Allen County unemployment: 3.7% — Down from 4.6% a year earlier, Aug 2026
- Ohio labor force change: -95,000 — YoY decline despite falling unemployment
- Ohio monthly job growth: 2,200 — Down from 3,100/month average, Jan-Aug 2026
- Lima-area WARN layoffs: 390 workers — Dana (295) and CAM Industrial (95) filings
Key takeaways
Local infrastructure pay is falling while national rates climb.
Systems Administrator and Network Engineer advertised pay dropped significantly in Lima even as national medians rose moderately, a divergence that makes remote-eligible roles in these functions increasingly vulnerable to out-of-market competition. Organizations with hybrid-eligible infrastructure roles may want to model retention risk against national, not just local, pay data.
Shrinking labor force, not booming hiring, explains the tighter rate.
Allen County's unemployment drop to 3.7% mirrors a statewide trend where falling labor force participation, not stronger job creation, is doing most of the work. Ohio added just 2,200 jobs statewide in August, down from a 3,100 monthly average earlier in the year, suggesting Lima's tightening candidate pool reflects fewer available workers rather than stronger local demand.
Cybersecurity and software pay gains signal where budgets are shifting.
Cybersecurity Analyst pay rose moderately to $99,737 locally and Software Engineer pay climbed to $149,363, both tracking national momentum driven by AI-adjacent skill demand. Pay concentration in these two functions, against declines in administrator and support roles, is consistent with national data showing specialized technical roles pulling away from traditional IT operations.
Manufacturing layoffs could feed adjacent technical hiring pools.
Dana's 295-worker and CAM Industrial's 95-worker WARN filings add displaced technical and operations talent to the regional market, some of whom carry transferable skills for industrial IT, OT security, or infrastructure support roles. Watching whether this talent migrates into IT-adjacent postings may offer a near-term sourcing opportunity for roles otherwise hard to fill locally.
Median advertised pay by role — Lima, OH MSA
| Role | 25th percentile | Median advertised pay | 75th percentile | Metro trend | National median |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Data Scientist * | $113,673 | $140,092 | $157,602 | Stable | $148,250 |
| Systems Administrator | $62,898 | $68,292 | $69,179 | Significant decline | $101,168 |
| Network Engineer | $44,146 | $63,056 | $69,397 | Significant decline | $114,400 |
| Software Engineer * | $108,354 | $149,363 | $164,880 | Moderate increase | $153,652 |
| Help Desk/IT Support Specialist | $40,001 | $47,139 | $52,980 | Significant decline | $53,644 |
| Cybersecurity Analyst * | $82,380 | $99,737 | $116,477 | Moderate increase | $106,790 |
| IT Project Manager * | $85,339 | $110,896 | $123,840 | Stable | $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
Allen County's unemployment rate tightened to 3.7% in August 2026 from 4.6% a year earlier, but the gain reflects shrinking labor supply as much as hiring strength — a pattern echoing Ohio's statewide contraction of 95,000 workers from the labor force over the same period. Manufacturing disruption continues to reshape the local base, with Dana's 295-worker layoff and CAM Industrial Solutions' 95-worker filing still working through the candidate pool even as P&G and Ford anchor stable demand.
What it means
Metro advertised pay for Systems Administrator ($68,292) and Network Engineer ($63,056) has fallen significantly even as national medians for the same roles climbed to $101,168 and $114,400 — a gap wide enough that Lima employers risk losing infrastructure talent to remote roles paying national rates. Software Engineer and Cybersecurity Analyst pay moved in the opposite direction locally, up moderately and tracking national trajectories, suggesting employers are concentrating compensation investment in specialized, harder-to-replace skills rather than across the board. Current conditions suggest reviewing whether commodity infrastructure functions — help desk, network administration — are better suited to contract or managed-services arrangements than full-time local headcount, given the widening local-national pay gap and a shrinking regional labor pool.
Looking ahead
Emerging pressure point: Local Systems Administrator and Network Engineer pay sitting well below national medians may accelerate attrition into remote roles over the next two months, particularly as national postings data (Indeed's Job Postings Index at 103.5) shows hiring activity picking up elsewhere. Organizations should track whether exit interviews cite compensation gaps tied to remote opportunities.
Worth watching: Ohio's labor force contraction (95,000 fewer workers year-over-year) has not yet visibly hit Lima's IT-specific postings, but a continued statewide trend could further tighten an already shrinking local technical candidate pool heading into Q4 hiring cycles.
Potential inflection point: Columbus's data center boom and resulting infrastructure engineer demand could begin pulling Lima-based cloud and network talent toward the capital region, roughly 75 miles northeast, as remote and hybrid arrangements expand the effective commuting radius for scarce skills.
Early indicator: Continued WARN activity in Lima-area manufacturing, following Dana and CAM Industrial filings, may produce a secondary wave of displaced workers with industrial automation or OT experience — a pool worth monitoring for infrastructure and security hiring needs.
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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