Labor Market Pulse · Information Technology · September 2026
Information Technology Labor Market Report: Montgomery, AL MSA — September 2026
Montgomery IT pay splits sharply by role as unemployment climbs.
Help Desk pay rose to $53,283 and Cybersecurity Analyst pay to $88,357 even as Montgomery unemployment climbed to 4.0%, while Systems Administrator pay fell to $91,976.
Free archive edition. Published by WageScape as sent to subscribers; data as of September 2026.
Key indicators
- Montgomery unemployment rate: 4.0% — vs 2.8% one year earlier (Aug 2025)
- Alabama median advertised salary: $55,168/yr — Statewide, June 2026, up with job ad volume
- Alabama cybersecurity vacancies: 8,000 unfilled — Against 750,000 nationwide vacancies
- Montgomery avg. hourly wage: $26.80 — vs $33.54 national average (May 2025)
Key takeaways
Help Desk pay is surging while metro unemployment rises.
Advertised Help Desk/IT Support pay jumped significantly to $53,283, nearly matching the national median, even as Montgomery unemployment climbed to 4.0%. That combination suggests employers struggle to fill entry-tier technical roles locally despite more job seekers overall, likely reflecting a skills mismatch rather than raw labor scarcity.
Cybersecurity remains a seller's market, locally and nationally.
Metro Cybersecurity Analyst pay rose significantly to $88,357, consistent with Alabama's reported 8,000 unfilled cybersecurity openings statewide. Organizations building internal security capacity should expect continued wage pressure and may find managed security services a more predictable cost alternative while the pipeline matures.
Systems Administrator and Data Scientist pay are softening here, not nationally.
Metro Systems Administrator pay fell to $91,976 and Data Scientist pay to $125,787, both diverging from upward national trends. Falling local demand for these roles may reflect accelerated automation or consolidation of infrastructure work into cloud-managed functions rather than a true oversupply of talent.
Software Engineer pay is rising faster locally than nationally.
Metro Software Engineer advertised pay increased to $138,750 while the national median held essentially flat at $153,652, narrowing the gap. Local employers competing for engineering talent may need to benchmark against this compressed differential rather than assuming a persistent metro discount.
Median advertised pay by role — Montgomery, AL MSA
| Role | 25th percentile | Median advertised pay | 75th percentile | Metro trend | National median |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Data Scientist | $97,905 | $125,787 | $149,843 | Moderate decline | $148,250 |
| Systems Administrator | $77,179 | $91,976 | $99,145 | Moderate decline | $101,168 |
| Network Engineer | $82,923 | $98,724 | $122,878 | Stable | $114,400 |
| Software Engineer | $100,689 | $138,750 | $155,100 | Moderate increase | $153,652 |
| Help Desk/IT Support Specialist | $40,182 | $53,283 | $62,793 | Significant increase | $53,644 |
| Cybersecurity Analyst | $78,702 | $88,357 | $96,903 | Significant increase | $106,790 |
| IT Project Manager | $108,742 | $124,577 | $129,750 | 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
Montgomery MSA unemployment drifted up to 4.0% in August 2026 from 2.8% a year earlier, even as Alabama posted a record 124,403 job ads statewide in June and median advertised pay climbed to $55,168 annually. Rising joblessness alongside continued ad volume suggests a market where employers remain selective and roles stay open longer, rather than one where labor supply is simply tightening or loosening in one direction.
What it means
Help Desk and Cybersecurity Analyst advertised pay are both climbing significantly in Montgomery even as broader metro unemployment rises — a signal that commodity support roles and entry-tier security talent are getting harder to source locally despite slack elsewhere in the labor pool. That divergence argues against blanket hiring freezes and toward differentiated headcount strategy: protect and pay for security and cloud-adjacent skills while routing lower-value infrastructure and support work to contract or managed-service arrangements. Consider reviewing which IT functions in your org are experiencing pay pressure independent of the metro's overall softening, and treat those as retention priorities rather than cost-cutting targets.
Looking ahead
Worth watching: Montgomery unemployment has risen nearly 1.2 points year-over-year even as statewide job ad volume grows. Watch whether August's uptick extends into September data, which would indicate softening demand beyond seasonal noise.
Emerging pressure point: Alabama's 8,000 unfilled cybersecurity roles and the state's new CISO-led security operating models suggest continued wage competition for security talent. IT leaders planning security headcount should expect limited relief from this talent gap in the near term.
Early indicator: Alabama's $150 million 2026 CTE investment targets technical pipeline gaps but won't meaningfully affect hiring pools for two to three years. Near-term infrastructure and support hiring should plan around continued scarcity, not anticipated pipeline relief.
Potential inflection point: National information-sector job losses in August alongside flat-to-declining metro Systems Administrator and Data Scientist pay may signal early AI-driven displacement reaching Montgomery's IT functions. Track whether local postings for these roles continue contracting relative to security and engineering.
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.
Free to read and cite with attribution to WageScape. Terms of use.