Labor Market Pulse · Information Technology · September 2026
Information Technology Labor Market Report: Logan, UT-ID MSA — September 2026
Cache Valley IT pay splits: security surges, infrastructure slides.
Cybersecurity Analyst pay jumped to $115,000 in the Logan metro against a $106,790 national median, while Network Engineer pay fell to $99,573 versus $114,400 nationally, exposing a widening split in local IT compensation strategy.
Free archive edition. Published by WageScape as sent to subscribers; data as of September 2026.
Key indicators
- Cache County unemployment rate: 3.1% — vs. 4.1% national, 3.5% Utah statewide
- Cybersecurity Analyst advertised pay: $115,000 — vs. $106,790 national median, up significantly
- Network Engineer advertised pay: $99,573 — vs. $114,400 national, down significantly locally
- Logan MSA nonfarm employment: 69.5K — Flat month-over-month, August 2026
Key takeaways
Infrastructure pay is falling locally while rising nationally.
Systems Administrator and Network Engineer advertised pay both declined in the metro even as national medians climbed, with Network Engineer down significantly (metro $99,573 vs. national $114,400). This divergence may suggest local employers are losing competitiveness for infrastructure talent to remote-first national employers rather than facing genuinely softer demand.
Security pay is the one clear local premium story.
Cybersecurity Analyst advertised pay rose significantly to $115,000, now exceeding the national median of $106,790 — unusual for a metro where most IT roles trail national benchmarks. Structural talent scarcity, reinforced by Utah's sub-2% tech unemployment, appears to be forcing employers to pay above-national rates for roles they cannot easily outsource or leave unfilled.
Help desk wages are rising while everything above it softens.
Help Desk/IT Support advertised pay rose to $65,986, well above the $53,644 national median, even as Systems Administrator and Network Engineer pay fell. Compressed entry-level labor supply — a trend state analysts tie to slower immigration and an aging workforce — may be forcing employers to overpay for support talent they once sourced more easily.
Software engineering pay gap with national market keeps widening.
Metro Software Engineer pay sits at $101,026 against a national median of $153,652 — a roughly 34% gap that remote work makes increasingly difficult to defend to candidates. Organizations should evaluate whether build-vs-buy decisions for development work increasingly favor contractors or remote hires over local permanent headcount.
Median advertised pay by role — Logan, UT-ID MSA
| Role | 25th percentile | Median advertised pay | 75th percentile | Metro trend | National median |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Data Scientist * | $116,237 | $149,284 | $164,187 | Moderate increase | $148,250 |
| Systems Administrator | $72,704 | $99,814 | $101,014 | Moderate decline | $101,168 |
| Network Engineer | $67,705 | $99,573 | $114,697 | Significant decline | $114,400 |
| Software Engineer | $49,970 | $101,026 | $124,964 | Moderate decline | $153,652 |
| Help Desk/IT Support Specialist | $53,594 | $65,986 | $66,732 | Moderate increase | $53,644 |
| Cybersecurity Analyst * | $87,758 | $115,000 | $128,229 | Significant increase | $106,790 |
| IT Project Manager * | $85,000 | $114,381 | $126,020 | 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
Cache County's unemployment rate held near 3.1% in mid-2026, among the lowest in Utah, as Professional and Business Services employment grew 5.5% year-over-year even while Local Government contracted 11.3% and Transportation/Warehousing fell 8.3%. Tight regional labor supply, compounded by a thinning junior talent pipeline statewide, is colliding with a local tech wage structure that trails national IT pay by a wide margin — creating retention exposure as remote and hybrid roles let talent arbitrage the gap.
What it means
Metro advertised pay for Systems Administrator ($99,814), Network Engineer ($99,573), and Software Engineer ($101,026) all moved down this month while national medians for the same roles rose or held — a divergence that signals local employers are either losing pricing power to remote competitors or quietly shifting these functions toward contract and managed-service delivery. Cybersecurity Analyst pay rose significantly locally ($115,000, outpacing the $106,790 national figure), suggesting Cache Valley employers are paying a scarcity premium to secure security talent they can't backfill through outsourcing. Consider reviewing whether declining local pay for infrastructure roles reflects genuine demand softening or a hidden migration of talent toward remote national employers, before locking in next year's infrastructure headcount budget.
Looking ahead
Worth watching: Local Government employment contracted 11.3% and Transportation/Warehousing fell 8.3% in the Logan MSA through August — watch whether displaced administrative or logistics-adjacent IT support staff enter the local candidate pool and ease entry-level hiring pressure.
Emerging pressure point: Utah tech unemployment sits below 2% against a statewide 3.5% rate, and roles are reportedly going unfilled for months despite rising offers. Expect continued upward pressure on cybersecurity and cloud specialist pay as Silicon Slopes employers compete directly with Cache Valley organizations for the same shallow talent pool.
Potential inflection point: Falling advertised pay for Systems Administrator, Network Engineer, and Software Engineer roles locally could reflect a genuine shift toward managed services and remote staffing rather than cooling demand. Track whether local job posting volumes for these roles decline alongside pay, which would confirm an outsourcing shift rather than a pricing correction.
Early indicator: National WARN activity remains elevated at major tech-adjacent employers including Amazon, Meta, and Verizon, with information-sector jobs declining in the August BLS report. Monitor whether any of this national tech displacement reaches Cache Valley through remote-eligible talent willing to accept below-national pay for local stability.
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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