Labor Market Pulse · Information Technology · September 2026
Information Technology Labor Market Report: Riverside-San Bernardino-Ontario, CA MSA — September 2026
Inland Empire tech pay splits: security up, engineering down.
Riverside metro Cybersecurity Analyst pay rose to $114,789 — above the $106,790 national median — even as Software Engineer pay fell to $141,175, more than $12,000 below the national figure.
Free archive edition. Published by WageScape as sent to subscribers; data as of September 2026.
Key indicators
- Metro unemployment rate: 5.4% — vs 4.1% national rate, Nov 2025 reading
- California info-sector job loss: -2,500 jobs — Trailing 12 months, statewide
- Metro Cybersecurity Analyst pay: $114,789 — vs $106,790 national median, up significantly
- California wage growth: 3.1% YoY — Slowed from prior pace statewide
Key takeaways
Software engineering pay is falling locally while the nation holds firm.
Metro Software Engineer advertised pay dropped significantly to $141,175 against a stable national median of $153,652, widening the gap to roughly $12,500. That divergence is consistent with Inland Empire employers facing less local competitive pressure even as remote-eligible national postings keep pay firm elsewhere.
Cybersecurity is the one role where the metro is winning the bidding war.
Cybersecurity Analyst advertised pay climbed to $114,789, now running ahead of the $106,790 national median. Combine that with California's statewide senior security architect range above $176K, and it appears Inland Empire organizations are paying up specifically to avoid losing scarce security talent to coastal or remote employers.
Data Scientist demand looks like it's quietly draining from the metro.
Metro Data Scientist advertised pay fell significantly to $106,150, more than $42,000 below the $148,250 national median — one of the widest local-to-national gaps in this month's data. That spread may suggest data science hiring is concentrating in coastal or remote-first postings, with Inland Empire roles increasingly commoditized or redefined.
IT Project Manager pay softening may reflect a shrinking build agenda.
IT Project Manager advertised pay dropped significantly to $101,043 against a rising national median of $117,530. Combined with California's broader professional-services contraction, this is consistent with fewer large internal technology initiatives locally — a signal worth testing before assuming it's purely a pay-benchmarking issue.
Median advertised pay by role — Riverside-San Bernardino-Ontario, CA MSA
| Role | 25th percentile | Median advertised pay | 75th percentile | Metro trend | National median |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Data Scientist | $97,551 | $106,150 | $122,500 | Significant decline | $148,250 |
| Systems Administrator | $81,453 | $101,691 | $112,958 | Stable | $101,168 |
| Network Engineer | $80,153 | $107,390 | $121,326 | Stable | $114,400 |
| Software Engineer | $114,573 | $141,175 | $162,639 | Significant decline | $153,652 |
| Help Desk/IT Support Specialist | $46,469 | $55,604 | $65,000 | Stable | $53,644 |
| Cybersecurity Analyst | $89,666 | $114,789 | $125,364 | Significant increase | $106,790 |
| IT Project Manager | $83,278 | $101,043 | $117,229 | Significant decline | $117,530 |
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
Riverside-San Bernardino-Ontario MSA unemployment sat near 5.4% through the back half of 2025 and into 2026, holding roughly a full point above the national rate as logistics and warehousing absorb most payroll gains while the region's information sector keeps contracting alongside California's statewide 2,500-job information-sector decline. Inland Empire employers are hiring into trade, transportation, healthcare, and public-sector roles even as tech-specific job creation lags, leaving local IT talent pools thinner and more exposed to in-migration competition from Los Angeles and Orange County employers offering remote-eligible premium pay.
What it means
Metro advertised pay for Software Engineer ($141,175) and Data Scientist ($106,150) each moved down significantly this cycle even as national medians for those roles held stable or rose, suggesting Inland Empire employers are either losing pricing power to remote-first competitors or recalibrating roles downward as local demand softens — a pattern that complicates retention for any organization still benchmarking against pre-2025 local data. Cybersecurity Analyst pay, by contrast, rose significantly to $114,789, outpacing the national median and reinforcing that security roles remain the one IT function where the region must compete on national terms rather than local comparables. Consider reviewing whether current software engineering and data science offers reflect actual candidate flight risk to remote national employers, rather than static local benchmarks that may now understate the retention gap.
Looking ahead
Worth watching: September California unemployment and MSA-level data remain unreleased as of early October; watch for the mid-October EDD release to confirm whether the metro's 5.4%-range unemployment is stabilizing or drifting toward the 5.9% high seen earlier in 2026.
Emerging pressure point: California's information sector has lost 2,500 jobs over the trailing year and professional/technical services shed 3,400 jobs in July-August alone. Watch whether released talent from these statewide cuts begins surfacing in Inland Empire candidate pools, which could ease pricing pressure on software engineering and data roles.
Potential inflection point: National cybersecurity pay is accelerating (senior roles reaching $400K) while the metro's own Cybersecurity Analyst median just posted a significant increase. Track whether this local acceleration persists through Q4 or was a single-month data artifact before adjusting retention budgets.
Early indicator: WARN notices tied to Amazon, Meta, and Verizon are concentrated statewide rather than locally, but logistics and warehousing remain the Inland Empire's dominant hiring engine. A slowdown in trade/transportation/utilities payroll growth — currently the region's strongest category — would be a meaningful early warning for broader metro labor demand.
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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