Labor Market Pulse · Information Technology · October 2026
Information Technology Labor Market Report: Oshkosh-Neenah, WI MSA — October 2026
Neenah IT pay slides as national rates climb sharply.
Metro Systems Administrator and Network Engineer pay sit flat near $69,021 while national medians rise toward $102,503 and $115,757, widening a gap IT leaders cannot ignore in headcount planning.
Free archive edition. Published by WageScape as sent to subscribers; data as of October 2026.
Key indicators
- Winnebago County unemployment: 3.3% — vs 4.2% national rate (Aug 2026)
- Network Engineer pay gap: $69,021 metro vs $115,757 national — Metro down significantly, national up moderately
- Wisconsin remote IT postings: 2% — 98% of WI tech jobs require in-person work
- National tech layoffs, YTD: 133,417 — 325 companies, already exceeds all of 2025
Key takeaways
Local infrastructure pay is falling while national rates climb.
Systems Administrator and Network Engineer advertised pay both sit at a $69,021 metro median against national medians above $100,000, and the local trend is down significantly while the national trend moves up. Organizations relying on local benchmarks alone risk underpricing these roles just as national competition intensifies.
Security and project management roles show the widest gaps.
Cybersecurity Analyst pay fell significantly locally to $82,924 against a national median of $107,327 moving up moderately, and IT Project Manager pay dropped significantly to $128,026 even as the national figure held near $118,150. These are exactly the roles tied to data center buildout and compliance work nationally — a mismatch that may accelerate reliance on contractors or managed security providers.
Help Desk pay is the one role moving against the grain.
Metro Help Desk/IT Support pay rose moderately to $56,264, above the national median of $53,129, which is itself trending down. This may reflect tighter local competition for entry-level technical talent as manufacturers and healthcare systems absorb frontline staff through hiring events like April's Oshkosh Area Employment Fair.
Wisconsin's in-person job structure limits remote counter-offers.
Only 2% of Wisconsin technology postings allow remote work, compared with a national environment where 41% of technologists say they would trade salary for flexibility. Metro employers competing for cloud and security talent without a remote option may need to close the gap through cash compensation.
Median advertised pay by role — Oshkosh-Neenah, WI MSA
| Role | 25th percentile | Median advertised pay | 75th percentile | Metro trend | National median |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Data Scientist | $98,374 | $101,782 | $116,306 | Moderate decline | $145,881 |
| Systems Administrator | $69,021 | $69,021 | $72,800 | Significant decline | $102,503 |
| Network Engineer | $64,321 | $69,021 | $95,006 | Significant decline | $115,757 |
| Software Engineer | $56,841 | $103,100 | $114,334 | Significant decline | $154,403 |
| Help Desk/IT Support Specialist | $45,918 | $56,264 | $60,840 | Moderate increase | $53,129 |
| Cybersecurity Analyst | $82,920 | $82,924 | $98,706 | Significant decline | $107,327 |
| IT Project Manager | $118,508 | $128,026 | $131,220 | Significant decline | $118,150 |
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
Winnebago County unemployment held near 3.3% in August, a full point below the national rate, even as county employment slipped 0.9% year-over-year and nonfarm payrolls statewide shed 13,700 positions in September. Wage pressure persists locally — Winnebago posted the state's largest Q4 2025 wage gain at 7.1% — but that strength is concentrated in manufacturing and healthcare, leaving advertised IT pay in the metro broadly disconnected from national trajectories.
What it means
Metro advertised pay for core infrastructure and security roles — Systems Administrator, Network Engineer, Cybersecurity Analyst, IT Project Manager — moved down significantly this month while national medians for the same roles rose moderately to sharply, a divergence that raises flight risk for technologists who can benchmark their own market value in seconds. This pattern is consistent with a market where Wisconsin's near-total in-person job structure (98% of tech postings require on-site presence) limits local employers' ability to compete with remote-friendly national offers, pushing build-vs-buy decisions toward managed services or offshore infrastructure support for roles where physical presence isn't essential. Consider reviewing retention risk for Cybersecurity Analyst and IT Project Manager staff specifically, where the metro-to-national pay gap has widened the most this cycle.
Looking ahead
Worth watching: National tech layoffs have already topped 133,000 for the year through late October, concentrated outside Wisconsin. Watch whether displaced talent from national tech hub contractions begins surfacing in the Fox Valley candidate pool over the next two pay cycles.
Emerging pressure point: Metro Network Engineer and Systems Administrator pay has fallen significantly while national rates rise moderately to sharply, a gap unlikely to close without a demand shock. Track whether local postings volume for these roles declines as employers shift toward managed service contracts over direct hires.
Early indicator: Wisconsin manufacturing employment is forecast roughly 1.3% below year-ago levels with payroll growth dipping further, a sector that anchors much of the region's on-prem IT support demand. A continued pullback here could soften local Help Desk and infrastructure hiring even as national IT wage growth stays elevated.
Potential inflection point: AI-related job postings now account for 7.3% of all national postings, more than double the 2022 peak, while AI/ML engineers command a $25,000 pay floor premium nationally. Metro employers with no local advertised AI-specialist pay data yet should expect this premium to eventually pull at adjacent Data Scientist and Software Engineer compensation.
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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