Labor Market Pulse · Information Technology · October 2026
Information Technology Labor Market Report: Winston-Salem, NC MSA — October 2026
Winston-Salem IT pay climbs while entry-level support jobs shrink.
Cybersecurity Analyst pay rose to $94,587 and Network Engineer pay to $110,876 locally, even as Help Desk/IT Support pay fell to $46,496 amid statewide information-sector contraction.
Free archive edition. Published by WageScape as sent to subscribers; data as of October 2026.
Key indicators
- NC unemployment rate: 3.4% — vs 4.2% national rate, September 2026
- Metro Cybersecurity Analyst pay: $94,587 — Up significantly, still trails $107,327 national
- Metro Help Desk/IT Support pay: $46,496 — Down significantly vs $53,129 national decline
- NC information-sector employment: Negative YoY — vs 8% growth in 2022, per OSBM/Richmond Fed
Key takeaways
Cybersecurity pay is outrunning national trend lines here.
Metro Cybersecurity Analyst pay rose to $94,587, a significant local gain even though it still trails the $107,327 national median. Truist and the region's two largest health systems are competing for the same shallow talent pool, which may force faster time-to-offer and richer sign-on packages to close gaps with higher-paying markets.
Help desk compression signals a shrinking entry-level IT pipeline.
Local Help Desk/IT Support pay fell sharply to $46,496, tracking a national decline tied to AI-assisted ticket deflection and outsourcing. Organizations relying on this tier as an internal talent pipeline into infrastructure and security roles should reassess whether that pathway still exists at scale.
Systems Administrator pay lags national median by nearly $10,000.
Metro Systems Administrator pay sits at $92,848 against a $102,503 national figure, even with significant local upward movement. Gap suggests room for continued convergence — organizations anchoring offers to last year's local data risk losing candidates to remote roles paying national rates.
Statewide information-sector contraction is a retention warning.
North Carolina's information sector remains in year-over-year decline even as Winston-Salem employers post competitive IT wages, implying layoffs elsewhere could feed the local candidate pool but also that budget pressure on tech headcount is building statewide. Current conditions suggest treating any uptick in available senior candidates as a retention window and a caution against expanding headcount broadly.
Median advertised pay by role — Winston-Salem, NC MSA
| Role | 25th percentile | Median advertised pay | 75th percentile | Metro trend | National median |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Data Scientist | $95,912 | $147,000 | $189,072 | Significant increase | $145,881 |
| Systems Administrator | $81,640 | $92,848 | $99,414 | Significant increase | $102,503 |
| Network Engineer | $88,400 | $110,876 | $122,872 | Significant increase | $115,757 |
| Software Engineer | $121,043 | $156,000 | $170,000 | Significant increase | $154,403 |
| Help Desk/IT Support Specialist | $40,991 | $46,496 | $59,202 | Significant decline | $53,129 |
| Cybersecurity Analyst | $75,865 | $94,587 | $100,470 | Significant increase | $107,327 |
| IT Project Manager | $75,009 | $100,055 | $118,198 | Moderate increase | $118,150 |
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
Winston-Salem's IT labor market is tightening against a backdrop of a sub-4% state unemployment rate (3.4% statewide in September) even as information-sector employment statewide remains negative year-over-year, squeezing the pool of available infrastructure and security talent. Local demand is being pulled in two directions: healthcare systems (Atrium Health Wake Forest Baptist, Novant Health) and Truist are advertising cybersecurity and technology roles at premiums above national medians, while broader information-sector contraction statewide signals employers are consolidating headcount.
What it means
Advertised pay for Network Engineer ($110,876), Software Engineer ($156,000) and Data Scientist ($147,000) roles is rising locally at a faster clip than national medians, suggesting Winston-Salem employers are competing hard for a thin local bench and are not benefiting from cost-of-labor advantages typically associated with secondary markets. Meanwhile Help Desk/IT Support pay is falling sharply both locally ($46,496) and nationally, consistent with AI-assisted support tooling and outsourcing absorbing routine ticket volume — a signal that commodity support headcount may be safer to manage through vendor contracts than direct hires. Consider evaluating whether infrastructure and security roles currently budgeted at national-median assumptions are underpriced for this metro, while testing outsourced or offshore models for tier-1 support before backfilling departures.
Looking ahead
Worth watching: Statewide automation-skills gap (-12, more postings than candidates) suggests Winston-Salem employers may increasingly route automation and DevOps work to contractors or offshore teams as local hires remain scarce to compete for. Watch whether build-vs-buy decisions shift visibly in IT project postings over the next quarter.
Emerging pressure point: Immigrants make up roughly one-third of NC's software development workforce, concentrating federal immigration policy risk in a state already short on technologists. A local disruption to this talent segment would tighten the Winston-Salem developer and data-science market further and could push advertised pay higher still.
Early indicator: National tech layoffs have already exceeded 133,000 workers through October, well ahead of 2025's full-year pace, concentrated in large tech hubs and less present in healthcare- and finance-anchored metros like Winston-Salem. Monitor whether any of that displaced talent surfaces locally through remote-eligible postings or relocation inquiries.
Potential inflection point: AI-related job postings now represent 7.3% of all U.S. postings, more than double the 2022 peak, while roughly 60% of NC tech jobs are considered exposed to AI-driven change. Winston-Salem IT leaders deferring support and operations headcount expansion should watch for clearer signals on which roles AI tooling actually displaces versus augments before locking in 2027 headcount plans.
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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