Labor Market Pulse · Information Technology · October 2026
Information Technology Labor Market Report: PA NONMETROPOLITAN AREA — October 2026
Local network and software engineer pay falls as national rates climb.
Metro Network Engineer pay dropped to $83,953 against a national median of $115,757, even as Cybersecurity Analyst and IT Project Manager pay rose locally — a split that signals where employers are protecting spend.
Free archive edition. Published by WageScape as sent to subscribers; data as of October 2026.
Key indicators
- PA unemployment rate: 3.6% — Lowest since Sept. 2023; vs. 4.2% nationally
- PA payroll change: -600 jobs — September 2026, despite record labor force
- Network Engineer pay gap: -27% — Metro $83,953 vs. national $115,757
- Tech sector layoffs (national, YTD): 133,417 — 325 companies, already exceeds all of 2025
Key takeaways
Network engineering pay is falling exactly where competition is rising.
Metro Network Engineer pay dropped significantly to $83,953 while the national median climbed to $115,757 — a 27% gap that did not exist at this scale previously. Remote-eligible infrastructure roles elsewhere make this a flight risk for incumbents and a hiring-cost advantage for employers.
Security and project management roles are the exception to local softening.
Cybersecurity Analyst ($100,845) and IT Project Manager ($117,386) advertised pay both moved up locally, tracking national gains in the same roles. Current conditions suggest employers are protecting spend on governance and delivery functions even as they compress pay on execution-heavy engineering roles.
Statewide job losses mask tightening labor supply.
Pennsylvania shed 600 jobs in September even as unemployment fell to 3.6%, a record-low labor force participation combination that points to employers struggling to find qualified candidates while hiring appetite holds. IT leaders should read statewide payroll softness as continued local competition for scarce technical skills.
Software engineering pay compression raises a build-vs-buy question.
Metro Software Engineer pay fell significantly to $131,746 against a stable national median of $154,403, a gap wide enough to make offshore or contract staffing more attractive on cost grounds alone. Pair this with the national trend of 66% of tech leaders simultaneously planning contract staffing increases — this metro may be an early adopter of that hybrid model, intentionally or not.
Median advertised pay by role — PA NONMETROPOLITAN AREA
| Role | 25th percentile | Median advertised pay | 75th percentile | Metro trend | National median |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Data Scientist | $114,277 | $142,000 | $158,727 | Stable | $145,881 |
| Systems Administrator | $75,896 | $95,014 | $102,262 | Stable | $102,503 |
| Network Engineer | $55,364 | $83,953 | $107,192 | Significant decline | $115,757 |
| Software Engineer | $104,895 | $131,746 | $147,723 | Significant decline | $154,403 |
| Help Desk/IT Support Specialist | $41,331 | $48,626 | $54,600 | Moderate decline | $53,129 |
| Cybersecurity Analyst | $83,276 | $100,845 | $122,370 | Moderate increase | $107,327 |
| IT Project Manager | $78,989 | $117,386 | $127,708 | Moderate increase | $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
Philipsburg-area IT hiring sits against a Pennsylvania backdrop of 3.6% unemployment — the lowest since 2023 — yet statewide payrolls contracted by 600 jobs in September, a signal that labor tightness and demand softness are coexisting as the market seeks direction. Nonmetro central Pennsylvania lacks the data center and AI infrastructure buildout drawing national IT investment to secondary markets, leaving local employers competing for infrastructure and security talent against both Pittsburgh/Philadelphia salary levels and remote-eligible national postings without the compensating pull of large-scale local project pipelines.
What it means
Significant local declines in Network Engineer ($83,953, down sharply) and Software Engineer ($131,746, down sharply) advertised pay, set against national medians moving up or holding stable for the same roles, point to employers pulling back on posted offers locally even as national competition for the same skills intensifies — a gap that erodes the region's ability to retain mid-career infrastructure talent. Cybersecurity Analyst and IT Project Manager pay moving up locally suggests employers are still willing to pay for risk-reducing and delivery-management roles even while compressing pay on build/run functions, consistent with a broader shift toward buying specialized expertise and tightening spend on general engineering capacity. Organizations should evaluate whether local pay compression on network and software engineering roles reflects a deliberate shift toward outsourcing or managed services for those functions, or an unintended retention risk building beneath currently stable headcount.
Looking ahead
Early indicator: Watch whether the Comcast Technology Center layoff of 634 Philadelphia workers effective December 31 pushes displaced infrastructure and cloud talent into the broader Pennsylvania candidate pool, including nonmetro markets willing to offer relocation or remote arrangements.
Emerging pressure point: Network Engineer and Software Engineer pay gaps between this metro and national medians are wide enough to prompt attrition risk; monitor internal exit interview data over the next quarter for signals that compensation is driving departures.
Worth watching: December 2 release of area-level nonmetro labor data will offer the first concrete read on local labor force and employment trends for October, filling a current data gap IT leaders should factor into Q1 headcount planning.
Potential inflection point: National AI-related job postings now exceed 7% of all postings, well above the 2022 peak; track whether this trickles into nonmetro Pennsylvania postings for AI-adjacent infrastructure and data roles or remains concentrated in major tech hubs.
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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