Labor Market Pulse · Information Technology · September 2026
Information Technology Labor Market Report: Syracuse, NY MSA — September 2026
Syracuse IT pay splits: software surges, security and networking slide.
Metro Software Engineer pay climbed to $137,500 even as Cybersecurity Analyst pay fell to $80,319 and Network Engineer pay dropped to $105,000, diverging sharply from national trends in both fields.
Free archive edition. Published by WageScape as sent to subscribers; data as of September 2026.
Key indicators
- Metro unemployment rate: 4.1% — Unchanged since June 2026; up from 3.7% in 2025
- Monthly job growth, 2026 avg: 25 jobs/month — vs 350/month average in 2025
- Cybersecurity Analyst pay gap: $80,319 metro — vs $106,790 national median, down moderate locally
- Metro vs national weekly wage: $1,423 — vs $1,654 U.S. average, Q1 2026
Key takeaways
Cybersecurity pay is falling locally while national demand surges.
Metro Cybersecurity Analyst advertised pay dropped to $80,319, a moderate decline, even as national medians rose to $106,790 and senior roles nationally reach $400K. Consider whether this signals Syracuse employers under-posting for scarce skills, risking losses to remote or out-of-metro offers.
Network Engineer pay decline may reflect a shrinking role, not a weaker market.
Metro Network Engineer advertised pay fell moderately to $105,000 while national pay rose to $114,400 — a divergence consistent with national signals that traditional infrastructure roles face structural demand compression. Headcount planning should separate declining advertised pay from declining strategic value of the function itself.
Software Engineer pay is pulling away from the rest of the local stack.
Metro Software Engineer pay rose significantly to $137,500, nearly matching the $153,652 national median and far outpacing other local IT roles. Concentrated wage growth in one role category may signal where Syracuse employers are prioritizing build-vs-buy decisions toward in-house development capacity.
Flat metro job growth is masking a skills reallocation, not a hiring freeze.
Syracuse added only 25 jobs monthly on average in 2026 against 350 in 2025, yet Software Engineer and Data Scientist pay both rose significantly. Aggregate hiring weakness may be concealing a quiet shift of budget toward higher-value technical roles and away from administrative and support functions.
Median advertised pay by role — Syracuse, NY MSA
| Role | 25th percentile | Median advertised pay | 75th percentile | Metro trend | National median |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Data Scientist | $88,174 | $106,640 | $107,008 | Significant increase | $148,250 |
| Systems Administrator | $66,042 | $79,787 | $85,000 | Stable | $101,168 |
| Network Engineer | $77,910 | $105,000 | $111,388 | Moderate decline | $114,400 |
| Software Engineer | $96,935 | $137,500 | $165,153 | Significant increase | $153,652 |
| Help Desk/IT Support Specialist | $44,474 | $51,274 | $56,848 | Moderate decline | $53,644 |
| Cybersecurity Analyst | $72,281 | $80,319 | $82,523 | Moderate decline | $106,790 |
| IT Project Manager | $75,129 | $101,508 | $102,164 | Stable | $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
Syracuse metro unemployment held at 4.1% through August, consistent with year-to-date readings, as weak private-sector job growth — averaging just 25 positions monthly in 2026 versus 350 in 2025 — points to a labor market that has stalled rather than tightened. Information-sector employment losses statewide, combined with WARN filings from Piedmont Airlines (88 workers) and FedEx's North Syracuse closure, are adding modest downward wage pressure on traditional IT operations roles even as specialized cloud and security talent remains scarce.
What it means
Flat headcount growth locally and declining advertised pay for Cybersecurity Analyst (-moderate) and Network Engineer (-moderate) roles suggest employers are consolidating demand around fewer, more senior hires rather than broadening teams — a pattern that rewards investment in platform and security architecture over commodity infrastructure staffing. Weak entry-level and help desk demand, paired with national data showing AI compressing lower-tier technical roles, strengthens the case for outsourcing routine support functions while reserving permanent headcount for cloud architecture and security specializations where Syracuse pay still trails national medians by wide margins. Consider reviewing whether current support-tier staffing reflects actual ticket volume and complexity, or legacy structure built before AI-assisted tooling reduced demand for first-line technical support.
Looking ahead
Worth watching: Piedmont Airlines' 88-worker WARN filing and FedEx's North Syracuse closure add technical and logistics-adjacent talent to the local pool. Watch whether displaced workers with infrastructure or support experience create short-term downward pressure on Help Desk and Systems Administrator advertised pay.
Emerging pressure point: National cybersecurity pay is accelerating sharply while Syracuse advertised pay for the same role is declining. If this gap persists through Q4, expect retention risk to concentrate in security functions first, particularly among mid-level analysts eligible for remote national-market offers.
Early indicator: Onondaga County employment grew 2.0% year-over-year in August even as metro-wide IT postings softened, suggesting hiring strength is concentrated outside traditional tech employers. Track whether Amazon's proposed Clay warehouse project pulls general technical labor away from core IT functions.
Potential inflection point: Indeed's national Job Postings Index turned positive year-over-year for the first time in nearly four years, alongside Bloomberg's ~90,000 September payroll forecast. A sustained national hiring recovery could tighten the specialized talent Syracuse employers compete for before local demand itself recovers.
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.