Labor Market Pulse · Information Technology · October 2026
Information Technology Labor Market Report: Palm Bay-Melbourne-Titusville, FL MSA — October 2026
Melbourne IT pay splits: security slips, project management climbs.
Metro Cybersecurity Analyst pay fell to $116,203 even as national pay rose to $107,327, while IT Project Manager pay climbed to $124,433 against a national $118,150.
Free archive edition. Published by WageScape as sent to subscribers; data as of October 2026.
Key indicators
- Brevard County unemployment: 4.8% — April 2026, up 1.2 pts year-over-year
- Cybersecurity Analyst pay, metro vs national: $116,203 vs $107,327 — Metro down significantly, national up moderate
- Computer/electronics manufacturing employment: 16,900 workers — Held steady April 2026, MSA's core tech sector
- Florida employment growth rank: 47th of 50 states — WalletHub, October 2026
Key takeaways
Cybersecurity pay is falling locally while rising nationally.
Metro Cybersecurity Analyst advertised pay dropped significantly to $116,203 against a national climb to $107,327, an unusual inversion given ReliaQuest's statewide read that Florida faces a talent transfer problem distinct from a shortage. This divergence may signal metro employers shifting toward outsourced security operations over in-house analyst headcount.
Network Engineer pay gap with national rates has widened.
Metro Network Engineer pay sits at $90,605 versus $115,757 nationally — a 22% discount that is widening as national rates climb on infrastructure and data center demand. Local infrastructure roles tied to defense and electronics manufacturing may be insulated from the data center hiring boom reshaping national network engineering pay.
Project management pay strength points to program-driven hiring.
IT Project Manager advertised pay rose to $124,433, outpacing the national median of $118,150, consistent with continued aerospace and defense program activity in the metro's electronics manufacturing base. Organizations competing for PM talent should expect this premium to persist as long as program backlogs justify it.
Help desk pay erosion signals a buyer's market for entry-level IT.
Help Desk/IT Support pay fell significantly to $49,882 locally, tracking a national decline but falling faster than the national pace. Soft entry-level demand creates room to rebuild support pipelines at lower cost, but risks widening the gap with living-wage thresholds following Florida's September minimum wage increase to $15.00.
Median advertised pay by role — Palm Bay-Melbourne-Titusville, FL MSA
| Role | 25th percentile | Median advertised pay | 75th percentile | Metro trend | National median |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Data Scientist | $114,038 | $141,900 | $158,093 | Moderate decline | $145,881 |
| Systems Administrator | $83,210 | $103,848 | $111,945 | Stable | $102,503 |
| Network Engineer | $54,966 | $90,605 | $105,891 | Moderate decline | $115,757 |
| Software Engineer | $109,890 | $137,223 | $150,832 | Moderate increase | $154,403 |
| Help Desk/IT Support Specialist | $40,566 | $49,882 | $56,378 | Significant decline | $53,129 |
| Cybersecurity Analyst | $85,543 | $116,203 | $125,698 | Significant decline | $107,327 |
| IT Project Manager | $107,902 | $124,433 | $135,115 | 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
Palm Bay-Melbourne-Titusville's labor market shows a split personality: Brevard County unemployment sat near 4.8% in early 2026 against sustained demand in defense and electronics manufacturing, where computer and electronic product employment held steady at 16,900 workers through April. Active postings from STR, Renesas Electronics, and Dynatrace signal continued appetite for software, operations, and systems talent even as Florida overall ranks 47th nationally for employment growth and finance and government payrolls contract statewide.
What it means
Advertised pay movements in this metro diverge sharply by function — Cybersecurity Analyst pay fell significantly to $116,203 even as national cybersecurity pay rose, while IT Project Manager pay climbed to $124,433, outpacing the national median of $118,150. That gap suggests local employers are consolidating security spend into managed services or regional vendors while competing harder for coordination and delivery talent tied to defense and aerospace program cycles. Consider reviewing whether cybersecurity compensation softness reflects outsourcing substitution before resetting internal pay ranges downward, separate from any change in actual risk exposure.
Looking ahead
Worth watching: Florida's statewide WARN filings reached 215 notices affecting 15,749 workers through late October; watch whether information-sector layoffs concentrated in finance and insurance begin surfacing in Brevard County postings or candidate pools.
Emerging pressure point: Cybersecurity Analyst pay softness locally against national gains deserves a second look in 30-60 days — if the gap persists, it may confirm a structural shift toward managed security services over a temporary pricing anomaly.
Early indicator: Palm Bay's roughly 10-month municipal hiring freeze, still holding around 55 unfilled positions as of March, offers a local test case for how long government IT vacancies can persist before service and cybersecurity risk forces action.
Potential inflection point: Job ads for AI-related roles, a signal of hiring demand (one ad often covers several openings), are up 266%, and machine learning postings up 207% across South Florida tech hubs since January 2024; watch whether that demand migrates up the I-95 corridor into Melbourne's defense and electronics employer base over the next two months.
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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