Labor Market Pulse · Information Technology · September 2026
Information Technology Labor Market Report: Racine, WI MSA — September 2026
Racine IT pay splits: support rates fall, security and engineering climb.
Racine advertised pay for Help Desk/IT Support fell to $44,798 even as Cybersecurity Analyst pay rose significantly to $95,817, while county unemployment settled at 3.30% after a volatile winter spike to 5.2%.
Free archive edition. Published by WageScape as sent to subscribers; data as of September 2026.
Key indicators
- Racine County unemployment: 3.30% — Down from 5.2% in Feb 2026, up from 2.7% WI rate
- Help Desk advertised pay: $44,798 — Down significantly vs. national $53,644 (stable)
- Cybersecurity Analyst advertised pay: $95,817 — Up significantly locally, up moderately nationally
- Wisconsin WARN notices, 2026: 56 notices / 3,914 workers — Down 7% from 2025, manufacturing-concentrated
Key takeaways
Help Desk pay is falling locally while national rates hold.
Metro advertised pay for Help Desk/IT Support dropped significantly to $44,798 even as the national median held steady near $53,644. Consider this a signal that local employers face less competitive pressure to retain support staff, making outsourcing or managed-service arrangements for tier-1 support more economically rational now than a year ago.
Cybersecurity and software pay are pulling away from the pack.
Cybersecurity Analyst and Software Engineer advertised pay both moved up significantly in Racine this month, consistent with national trends showing senior cybersecurity roles reaching $400K and mid-level AI engineers up 9.2% year over year. Organizations should evaluate whether current comp structures for these roles still align with a market where specialized talent has options well beyond the metro.
Displaced manufacturing-adjacent workers may not fill IT gaps.
UNFI's warehouse closure and Cree Lighting's 172-person layoff released hundreds of workers into the Racine labor pool, but this talent skews toward logistics and production, not IT skill sets. Headcount planners should not assume local layoff activity eases pressure on infrastructure or security hiring.
Wisconsin's attraction gap, not attrition, is the real constraint.
State research points to a shortfall of roughly 1,500 college-educated arrivals annually, meaning Racine employers cannot easily backfill specialized IT roles through external recruitment. Current conditions suggest internal mobility and upskilling budgets deserve more weight relative to external search spend.
Median advertised pay by role — Racine, WI MSA
| Role | 25th percentile | Median advertised pay | 75th percentile | Metro trend | National median |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Data Scientist | $91,919 | $98,776 | $99,307 | Stable | $148,250 |
| Systems Administrator * | $74,294 | $86,227 | $96,000 | Stable | $101,168 |
| Network Engineer | $78,607 | $80,000 | $86,225 | Stable | $114,400 |
| Software Engineer | $50,276 | $113,310 | $124,667 | Significant increase | $153,652 |
| Help Desk/IT Support Specialist | $39,837 | $44,798 | $49,567 | Significant decline | $53,644 |
| Cybersecurity Analyst * | $76,854 | $95,817 | $108,948 | Significant increase | $106,790 |
| IT Project Manager | $74,896 | $91,135 | $100,982 | Significant increase | $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
Racine-area unemployment eased to 3.30% in May 2026 after spiking to 5.2% in February, but the correction masks real disruption — UNFI's Sturtevant warehouse closure and Cree Lighting's 172-person layoff (half its workforce) both concluded by August, pushing displaced logistics and manufacturing talent into a thin local labor pool. Wisconsin's statewide "low-hire, low-fire" pattern holds in Racine: Information sector employment fell statewide even as data science and computer research roles are projected to grow 43-44% over the medium term, signaling a bifurcated market where commodity IT roles stagnate while specialized technical talent stays scarce.
What it means
Racine's manufacturing-and-logistics-heavy employer base means most local IT demand sits in support, infrastructure, and administrative functions — exactly the roles facing national wage compression (Help Desk pay down 4.4% locally) while Software Engineer and Cybersecurity Analyst advertised pay climb significantly. That divergence strengthens the case for outsourcing commodity support and network administration work to regional or national providers while reserving scarce internal headcount budget for cloud, security, and data specializations that Racine's thin talent pipeline cannot easily replace. Consider reviewing which infrastructure and support functions could shift to contract or managed-service arrangements before committing to permanent headcount in a metro where college-educated talent attraction remains structurally weak.
Looking ahead
Worth watching: Racine County unemployment has swung from 3.6% in December to 5.2% in February to 3.30% in May — watch whether this volatility stabilizes or signals continued disruption from the UNFI and Cree Lighting fallout working through the local economy.
Emerging pressure point: Statewide Information sector employment is contracting (-0.4% year over year) even as data science roles are projected for strong growth. Watch whether this divergence shows up locally as non-tech Racine employers freeze general IT headcount while quietly competing for a small pool of cloud and security specialists.
Potential inflection point: Microsoft's regional data center buildout has already cycled 10,000 construction workers through its first phase. Watch for early signs of hyperscaler-driven demand for cloud and infrastructure talent reaching Racine-area employers, even indirectly through subcontractor or vendor relationships.
Early indicator: National WARN filings remain elevated (3,562 notices affecting over 313,000 workers as of late September) with Amazon, Meta, and Oracle among prominent filers. Monitor whether any released cloud or platform talent migrates toward Wisconsin's lower-cost metros, which could temporarily ease specialized hiring pressure.
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.