Labor Market Pulse · Information Technology · October 2026
Information Technology Labor Market Report: Terre Haute, IN MSA — October 2026
Terre Haute tech pay outruns national trend despite a low-wage metro.
Network Engineer pay in Terre Haute ($111,482) has nearly closed the gap with the national median ($115,757), while Software Engineer pay ($142,699) now exceeds it, even as the metro's overall average wage sits at just $25.67 an hour.
Free archive edition. Published by WageScape as sent to subscribers; data as of October 2026.
Key indicators
- Terre Haute unemployment rate: 3.9% — vs 4.2% national, 3.4% Indiana (Sept. 2026)
- Software Engineer advertised pay: $142,699 — up significantly; vs $154,403 national (stable)
- Metro average wage, all occupations: $25.67/hr — median $21.57/hr, below-national-average metro
- Professional/technical services growth: +24.23% YoY — Vigo County, outpacing 9.09% manufacturing growth
Key takeaways
Network Engineer pay has closed the gap with national rates.
Metro median of $111,482 against a national median of $115,757 marks a significant upward move, consistent with manufacturing's 9.09% employment growth pulling plant-floor networking and OT/IT convergence talent into tighter local competition. Budgeting for infrastructure roles likely needs a metro-specific adjustment instead of a standard cost-of-labor discount.
Software Engineer compensation now outpaces the national figure.
Metro median of $142,699, up significantly, has moved ahead of the $154,403 national median on a converging trajectory while national software engineer pay holds stable — an unusual local-over-national pattern for a non-tech-hub metro. This may reflect scarcity of engineering talent against a small regional base more than a broad market repricing, and warrants role-specific benchmarking before assuming parity with national trend lines.
Help desk pay softening creates room for in-market support staffing.
Help Desk/IT Support advertised pay fell moderately to $51,728, tracking the national decline to $53,129, even as overall labor supply in Indiana tightened. Declining demand-side pressure on entry-level support roles may create an opportunity to in-source routine support work locally instead of offshoring it, since cost advantage here remains intact where it matters most.
Cybersecurity Analyst pay gap signals a specialist sourcing decision.
Metro median sits at $91,478 against $107,327 nationally — a 15% discount that is unusually wide given cybersecurity's status as one of the tightest specialist markets nationally. Organizations should evaluate whether this gap reflects a thinner local talent pool requiring remote hires at national rates, or an actual opportunity to build security capability in-market below national cost.
Median advertised pay by role — Terre Haute, IN MSA
| Role | 25th percentile | Median advertised pay | 75th percentile | Metro trend | National median |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Data Scientist * | $94,755 | $126,238 | $147,016 | Stable | $145,881 |
| Systems Administrator | $61,125 | $70,842 | $75,423 | Moderate increase | $102,503 |
| Network Engineer * | $77,500 | $111,482 | $125,131 | Significant increase | $115,757 |
| Software Engineer * | $103,089 | $142,699 | $158,664 | Significant increase | $154,403 |
| Help Desk/IT Support Specialist | $45,212 | $51,728 | $59,280 | Moderate decline | $53,129 |
| Cybersecurity Analyst * | $77,413 | $91,478 | $101,368 | Moderate increase | $107,327 |
| IT Project Manager * | $89,657 | $114,590 | $123,652 | Moderate increase | $118,150 |
* 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
Terre Haute's unemployment rate held at 3.9% in September, tracking tighter than both Indiana's 3.4% and the national 4.2% rate, while nonfarm employment of 68,400 remains anchored by government, health services, and manufacturing, with no comparable tech-sector base. Manufacturing employment in Vigo County grew 9.09% year-over-year alongside a 24.23% expansion in professional and technical services, suggesting local IT demand is increasingly embedded inside industrial and services employers, with standalone tech firms playing a smaller role.
What it means
Metro-level advertised pay for Network Engineer ($111,482) and Software Engineer ($142,699) now sits close to or above national medians despite a metro average wage of just $25.67/hour across all occupations, signaling that specialized infrastructure and engineering talent commands near-metro-blind pricing even in a low-cost labor market. That compression narrows the economic case for routing core infrastructure and engineering work to this metro purely on cost, while Help Desk/IT Support ($51,728, down moderately) and Systems Administrator ($70,842, up moderately but still 31% below the national median) remain comparatively favorable for on-prem support functions. Consider reviewing whether current infrastructure and security headcount plans still assume a local cost advantage that advertised pay data no longer fully supports for senior technical roles.
Looking ahead
Worth watching: Indiana's employed resident count fell roughly 8,800 over the past year even as participation rate (63.1%) outpaces the national average, meaning the labor force itself is shrinking even as participation holds relatively strong. Watch whether this constrains the pipeline for mid-level infrastructure and security hires through year-end hiring cycles.
Emerging pressure point: Professional and technical services employment grew 24.23% year-over-year in Vigo County, a pace that likely reflects consulting and contract IT work absorbing demand that local employers can't fill with direct hires. Rising reliance on contract labor here may be an early signal of a build-vs-buy shift toward outsourced delivery models.
Potential inflection point: National tech layoffs already exceed all of 2025 (133,417 through October 21), even as Terre Haute's Software Engineer and Network Engineer pay climbs. Monitor whether displaced talent from larger tech hubs begins surfacing in the regional candidate pool, which could ease upward wage pressure on specialist roles into Q1.
Expected: Meta's LEAP District data center buildout near Lebanon, projected to need 4,000 skilled construction workers at peak, sits outside the immediate Terre Haute MSA but competes for the same regional electrical, network, and facilities talent pool. Expect continued upward pressure on infrastructure-adjacent compensation across west-central Indiana through the buildout period.
Sources
- Federal Reserve Economic Data / BLS — Terre Haute MSA unemployment rate 3.9% in September 2026
- Hoosiers by the Numbers — Manufacturing employment in Vigo County grew 9.09% year-over-year
- Indiana Department of Workforce Development — Indiana employed resident count fell ~8,800 over past year
- Layoffs.fyi / industry tracking — 133,417 tech employees laid off at 325 companies through Oct 21, 2026
- Indiana state economic development reporting — Meta LEAP District data center expected to employ 4,000 at peak construction
- Indiana Department of Workforce Development — Terre Haute MSA average wage $25.67/hour, median $21.57/hour
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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