Labor Market Pulse · Information Technology · September 2026
Information Technology Labor Market Report: OK NONMETROPOLITAN AREA — September 2026
Oklahoma nonmetro counties split 4.4 points on unemployment.
Love County's 7.0% unemployment towers over Dewey County's 2.6%, while metro Systems Administrator pay climbs significantly to $78,300 even as Cybersecurity Analyst pay slides to $77,940.
Free archive edition. Published by WageScape as sent to subscribers; data as of September 2026.
Key indicators
- County unemployment spread: 4.4 pts — Love County 7.0% vs Dewey County 2.6%, May 2026
- Oklahoma unemployment rate: 4.3% — vs 4.1% national rate, August 2026
- Firms planning no 2026 wage increase: 33%+ — up from 15% in 2023, Kansas City Fed
- Dewey County avg weekly wage: $1,478 — highest of 74 smaller OK counties
Key takeaways
Systems Administrator pay is rising while Cybersecurity Analyst pay is falling.
Metro Systems Administrator advertised pay climbed significantly to $78,300 even as Cybersecurity Analyst pay dropped to $77,940 — a reversal of the national pattern where cybersecurity commands a $106,790 median. This may signal local employers are backfilling infrastructure gaps faster than they're building security capacity, a build-vs-buy signal worth testing against outsourced SOC pricing.
Help Desk pay compression looks like a leading indicator, not noise.
Metro Help Desk pay fell significantly to $51,870 against a flat national median of $53,644, consistent with CompTIA and Motion Recruitment data showing AI-driven compression in commodity IT operations roles nationally. Nonmetro Oklahoma employers appear to be testing how far entry-tier support pay can fall before candidate supply dries up.
County unemployment spread of 4.4 points complicates single-rate hiring plans.
Love County's 7.0% unemployment versus Dewey County's 2.6% means labor availability for infrastructure and support roles varies dramatically by county even within the same nonmetro designation. Headcount plans built on a single statewide 4.3% assumption risk under- or over-estimating local candidate pools depending on exact site location.
Data Scientist pay gap to national median signals a sourcing decision, not a pay gap to fix.
Metro Data Scientist pay sits at $124,173 against a $148,250 national median — a 16% discount consistent with broader AI/ML talent scarcity in non-metro markets. Current conditions suggest remote-first sourcing or contractor arrangements may close capability gaps faster than local pay increases alone.
Median advertised pay by role — OK NONMETROPOLITAN AREA
| Role | 25th percentile | Median advertised pay | 75th percentile | Metro trend | National median |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Data Scientist | $102,485 | $124,173 | $132,101 | Moderate increase | $148,250 |
| Systems Administrator | $66,503 | $78,300 | $83,042 | Significant increase | $101,168 |
| Network Engineer | $86,062 | $102,444 | $103,311 | Moderate increase | $114,400 |
| Software Engineer | $93,376 | $120,636 | $138,508 | Stable | $153,652 |
| Help Desk/IT Support Specialist | $41,037 | $51,870 | $61,289 | Significant decline | $53,644 |
| Cybersecurity Analyst | $71,150 | $77,940 | $84,177 | Moderate decline | $106,790 |
| IT Project Manager | $82,441 | $97,790 | $126,965 | Stable | $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
Oklahoma's nonmetropolitan counties continue trading on a wide dispersion story — Love County's unemployment rate sits at 7.0% against Dewey County's 2.6%, while statewide unemployment drifted to 4.3% in August, above the 4.1% national rate. Weekly wages in 73 of 74 smaller counties remain below the national average even as Dewey's $1,478 average signals energy-sector wage strength is pulling select pockets of nonmetro Oklahoma upward while most lag.
What it means
County-level wage dispersion this wide means a single metro-area compensation strategy will systematically misprice talent in either high-cost energy-adjacent counties or lower-wage rural ones, directly affecting whether infrastructure and support roles get filled locally or require remote/hybrid sourcing from Oklahoma City or Tulsa labor pools. Softening statewide wage intentions — over a third of Oklahoma firms now plan no 2026 raises per the Kansas City Fed — collide with Systems Administrator pay up significantly in the broader metro comparison set, suggesting organizations that freeze support-tier pay risk losing exactly the roles seeing the sharpest advertised increases. Consider reviewing county-level pay differentials before finalizing 2026 compensation bands for infrastructure and support hires sourced from nonmetro counties.
Looking ahead
Worth watching: Google's $3 billion Stillwater data center project signals accelerating cloud infrastructure build-out near nonmetro Oklahoma; watch whether this pulls network engineering and infrastructure talent out of smaller-county employers over the next two quarters.
Emerging pressure point: Statewide professional and business services employment fell 2,200 jobs year-over-year, a sector that includes IT consulting and systems integration firms serving nonmetro clients. A continued decline may push nonmetro enterprises toward in-house hiring or larger managed-service vendors based in Oklahoma City or Tulsa.
Early indicator: Kansas City Fed survey data shows over a third of Oklahoma firms plan no 2026 wage increases, up sharply from 15% in 2023. Watch whether this freeze holds through Q4 hiring cycles or breaks for specialized infrastructure and security roles where advertised pay is still climbing.
Potential inflection point: Oklahoma's computer and mathematical occupations are projected as the second-fastest-growing occupational group statewide through 2034, per OESC, even as current AI adoption among Oklahoma firms remains cautious. A shift toward AI-as-substitute rather than complement could accelerate local build-vs-buy decisions faster than current hiring plans assume.
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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