Labor Market Pulse · Information Technology · September 2026
Information Technology Labor Market Report: Pittsfield, MA MSA — September 2026
Pittsfield jobs shrink while tech pay keeps climbing.
Pittsfield metro employment fell 1.2% in August even as Data Scientist advertised pay rose to a metro median of $174,981, outpacing the $148,250 national figure.
Free archive edition. Published by WageScape as sent to subscribers; data as of September 2026.
Key indicators
- Berkshire County unemployment: 4.1% — Down from 4.5% in July 2026
- Pittsfield employment change: -1.2% — Among largest MA metro declines, Aug 2026
- Berkshire avg weekly wage: $1,295 — vs $1,654 U.S. average, Q1 2026
- Massachusetts WARN notices: 72 notices / 7,343 workers — Down 11% YoY statewide in 2026
Key takeaways
Pittsfield's job pullback didn't cool its data science market.
Metro employment fell 1.2% in a single month even as Data Scientist advertised pay climbed significantly to $174,981, above the national median. Broader softness in hiring isn't translating into pricing relief for specialized technical roles.
Help desk pay is rising faster than the role's long-term outlook.
Help Desk/IT Support advertised pay jumped significantly to $59,714 even as national research points to AI-driven compression in commodity support work. Current wage momentum may reflect local scarcity rather than durable demand — worth treating as a retention-year anomaly, not a baseline shift.
Systems Administrator pay is accelerating against a flat national trend.
Metro Systems Administrator pay rose significantly to $99,152 while the national figure moved only moderately to $101,168, narrowing a gap that typically favored national markets. Infrastructure roles once considered easy outsourcing targets may be getting harder to backfill locally at historical rates.
Berkshire County's sub-national wage base is a retention liability, not a savings play.
Average weekly wages here still trail the U.S. figure by roughly 22%, which may suggest the metro struggles to hold technical staff against Boston or remote offers rather than providing a genuine cost advantage. Budgeting at county-average wage levels for cloud or security hires risks losing candidates to metro areas pricing those skills nationally.
Median advertised pay by role — Pittsfield, MA MSA
| Role | 25th percentile | Median advertised pay | 75th percentile | Metro trend | National median |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Data Scientist | $118,313 | $174,981 | $196,019 | Significant increase | $148,250 |
| Systems Administrator | $83,200 | $99,152 | $109,196 | Significant increase | $101,168 |
| Network Engineer * | $82,510 | $119,093 | $132,750 | Stable | $114,400 |
| Software Engineer | $96,182 | $124,784 | $145,491 | Significant increase | $153,652 |
| Help Desk/IT Support Specialist | $52,134 | $59,714 | $70,722 | Significant increase | $53,644 |
| Cybersecurity Analyst * | $90,000 | $109,200 | $125,802 | Moderate increase | $106,790 |
| IT Project Manager * | $82,879 | $116,656 | $133,600 | Stable | $117,530 |
* State-level figure shown where metro postings were too few.
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
Berkshire County's unemployment rate eased to 4.1% in August after running at 4.5% in July, even as Pittsfield metro payrolls contracted 1.2% month-over-month — one of the sharper employment pullbacks in Massachusetts. GE, Berkshire Health Systems, and General Dynamics Mission Systems continue to anchor a manufacturing-healthcare-defense base that keeps overall labor demand steady, but the county's $1,295 average weekly wage versus $1,654 nationally signals a market where specialized technical talent must often be imported or hired remotely rather than sourced at local pay scales.
What it means
Pittsfield's wage floor sits well below both state and national levels, which widens the gap IT leaders must close to retain cloud, security, and development talent against Boston-area and remote-market competition — the same dynamic driving Data Scientist pay to a metro median of $174,981, above the $148,250 national figure. Commodity support functions, by contrast, face less local wage pressure and remain reasonable outsourcing or shared-services candidates given the metro's lower-wage baseline. Consider reviewing which infrastructure and security roles are priced against Boston or national markets rather than Berkshire County data, since local benchmarks likely understate what's needed to retain specialized staff.
Looking ahead
Expected: Massachusetts unemployment data for September releases October 16 — watch whether Berkshire County's recent improvement to 4.1% holds or reverts toward July's 4.5%, which would signal renewed local labor slack.
Emerging pressure point: Pittsfield's 1.2% monthly employment decline was among the largest in the state; if it persists into September data, it may begin feeding displaced manufacturing or healthcare administrative talent into the local candidate pool without necessarily easing technical hiring.
Worth watching: Statewide WARN filings are down 11% year-over-year, but Worcester and Springfield are adding jobs while Boston and Pittsfield contract — a divergence that could redirect contractor and relocation interest toward western Massachusetts if cost-of-living arbitrage becomes attractive.
Potential inflection point: National cybersecurity and AI-engineering pay gains (8-9% YoY) have not yet shown up distinctly in Pittsfield advertised data; monitor whether local employers begin posting at those premiums to compete for remote-capable specialized talent.
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.