Labor Market Pulse · Information Technology · September 2026
Information Technology Labor Market Report: Sheboygan, WI MSA — September 2026
Sheboygan IT pay splits: support roles surge, admin roles sink.
Help Desk pay rose significantly to $52,243, nearing the $53,644 national median, while Systems Administrator pay fell significantly to $70,000 against a rising $101,168 national figure.
Free archive edition. Published by WageScape as sent to subscribers; data as of September 2026.
Key indicators
- Sheboygan MSA unemployment: 2.9% — August 2026, up from 2.8% year-ago
- Help Desk advertised pay: $52,243 — Up significantly, nearing $53,644 national
- Systems Administrator advertised pay: $70,000 — Down significantly vs $101,168 national
- Wisconsin data scientist job growth: 43% — Projected statewide, adding 1,230 jobs
Key takeaways
Systems Administrator pay is falling here while rising nationally.
Metro median sits at $70,000 against a national figure of $101,168, a gap that has widened this month as the role trends down significantly locally. Sheboygan employers paying below a shrinking national rate risk losing admins to remote-friendly postings the moment turnover opens a door.
Help Desk pay is climbing faster than almost anything else in the market.
Advertised pay rose significantly to $52,243, nearly matching the national median of $53,644 — unusual compression for an entry-tier role. This suggests local employers are competing hard for support staff even as higher-tier IT roles see pay pressure ease, a signal that frontline talent, not senior infrastructure staff, is the binding constraint right now.
IT Project Manager compensation looks like a bellwether, not an anomaly.
Down significantly to $97,126 against a rising $117,530 national median, the decline tracks the state's broader 'low-hire, low-fire' posture rather than a Sheboygan-specific event. Expect this role to be the first renegotiated upward once project volume picks up, since coordination capacity is cheap to cut and expensive to rebuild.
Software Engineer gains mask a thinner talent pool than the number implies.
Local advertised pay moved up moderately to $112,250, narrowing the gap with the $153,652 national median, but Wisconsin's structural shortfall of roughly 1,500 college-educated arrivals annually constrains who employers can actually hire at that rate. Pay convergence here may reflect desperation bidding for a small local candidate set more than confidence in supply.
Median advertised pay by role — Sheboygan, WI MSA
| Role | 25th percentile | Median advertised pay | 75th percentile | Metro trend | National median |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Data Scientist * | $93,382 | $123,893 | $140,000 | Stable | $148,250 |
| Systems Administrator | $68,493 | $70,000 | $70,000 | Significant decline | $101,168 |
| Network Engineer | $73,748 | $74,498 | $82,249 | Stable | $114,400 |
| Software Engineer | $100,116 | $112,250 | $138,152 | Moderate increase | $153,652 |
| Help Desk/IT Support Specialist | $45,000 | $52,243 | $60,000 | Significant increase | $53,644 |
| Cybersecurity Analyst * | $76,854 | $95,817 | $108,948 | Significant increase | $106,790 |
| IT Project Manager | $76,939 | $97,126 | $109,623 | Significant decline | $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
Sheboygan MSA unemployment held at 2.9% in August, with the workforce expanding by 100 workers month-over-month even as the manufacturing base — 21.9 thousand nonfarm jobs — shows no signs of the broader state pullback in trade and transportation employment. Tight overall labor supply is colliding with soft white-collar IT demand, producing a bifurcated market where production and support roles stay scarce while administrative and admin-heavy IT functions see advertised pay compress.
What it means
Metro-level wage compression in Systems Administrator and IT Project Manager postings, down significantly against rising national medians, signals local employers are deprioritizing traditional infrastructure and coordination roles even as statewide data scientist demand is projected to grow 43% through the decade. IT leaders weighing build-vs-buy should treat this divergence as confirmation that commodity infrastructure work is becoming a sourcing decision rather than a headcount decision, while cloud and data specialization remains a retention fight against national pay growth. Consider reviewing whether current Systems Administrator and IT Project Manager compensation reflects a genuine local market reset or a lagging indicator that will trigger attrition once regional employers correct.
Looking ahead
Early indicator: Watch whether Help Desk pay growth continues into October; sustained significant increases would confirm frontline support is now the metro's tightest IT labor segment, not a temporary spike tied to seasonal hiring.
Emerging pressure point: Systems Administrator and IT Project Manager pay are both down significantly while national medians rise — track whether this gap triggers visible attrition into remote roles over the next two pay cycles.
Worth watching: Statewide data scientist and computer research scientist roles are projected for 43-44% growth; monitor whether any of that demand reaches Sheboygan employers like Kohler or ACUITY Insurance versus staying concentrated in Madison and Milwaukee tech clusters.
Potential inflection point: Wisconsin's $5 million workforce attraction investment targets batteries, fusion, and quantum sectors, not IT directly — but any resulting population inflow could ease the college-educated talent shortfall constraining local Software Engineer and Data Scientist hiring.
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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