Labor Market Pulse · Information Technology · September 2026
Information Technology Labor Market Report: Youngstown-Warren-Boardman, OH-PA MSA — September 2026
Youngstown IT pay splits: infrastructure scarcity, commodity stagnation.
Metro Network Engineer pay is up significantly even as Systems Administrator pay holds flat at $78,043, against a metro unemployment rate of 4.8% running well above Ohio's 3.3%.
Free archive edition. Published by WageScape as sent to subscribers; data as of September 2026.
Key indicators
- Metro unemployment rate: 4.8% — vs 3.3% Ohio, 4.1% national (Aug 2026)
- Metro employment contraction forecast: -1.76% — Annualized, 2nd-steepest among Ohio's top metros
- Mahoning County avg weekly wage: $1,064 — Ranks 361st nationally vs $1,654 US avg
- Trumbull County unemployment: 5.1% — Aug 2026, above Mahoning's 4.6% (July)
Key takeaways
Network Engineer pay is breaking from the metro's wage pattern.
Advertised pay for the role jumped significantly locally even as the broader Mahoning County wage base lags the national average by nearly $600 a week. Read this as scarcity pricing for infrastructure skill, not a general metro wage recovery — bands set against old local norms will undershoot.
Systems Administrator pay is going nowhere, and that's a signal.
Stable advertised pay locally and a national figure still over $23,000 higher suggests this function is being commoditized faster here than elsewhere, consistent with national data showing network admin roles facing permanent demand compression. Build-vs-buy decisions for routine administration look increasingly favorable toward outsourcing or managed services.
Metro employment contraction raises the cost of a bad retention bet.
A projected 1.76% annual contraction in metro employment, among the steepest of Ohio's eight largest metros, means replacing a departed specialist takes longer and costs more locally than state or national averages would imply. Retention economics for cybersecurity and cloud roles should weigh this scarcity, not just advertised pay levels.
Cybersecurity and cloud specialization are pulling away from commodity IT.
National cybersecurity pay averaging near $192,000 with senior roles at $400,000, against metro Cybersecurity Analyst pay up only moderately to $99,737, shows a widening gap between what the role commands nationally and what's advertised locally. Organizations unable to close that gap risk losing specialists to remote-first employers who no longer require relocation.
Median advertised pay by role — Youngstown-Warren-Boardman, OH-PA MSA
| Role | 25th percentile | Median advertised pay | 75th percentile | Metro trend | National median |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Data Scientist * | $113,673 | $140,092 | $157,602 | Stable | $148,250 |
| Systems Administrator | $67,500 | $78,043 | $85,950 | Stable | $101,168 |
| Network Engineer | $71,250 | $80,080 | $88,977 | Significant increase | $114,400 |
| Software Engineer * | $108,354 | $149,363 | $164,880 | Moderate increase | $153,652 |
| Help Desk/IT Support Specialist | $42,360 | $45,467 | $48,423 | Stable | $53,644 |
| Cybersecurity Analyst * | $82,380 | $99,737 | $116,477 | Moderate increase | $106,790 |
| IT Project Manager * | $85,339 | $110,896 | $123,840 | Stable | $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
Youngstown-Warren-Boardman unemployment sits at 4.8% in August, nearly a full point above Ohio's 3.3% and above the national 4.1%, reflecting a metro employment base projected to contract 1.76% annually — among the steepest declines of Ohio's major metros. Mahoning County's average weekly wage of $1,064 ranks 361st nationally, well below the $1,654 U.S. average, a gap that continues to pull technical talent toward remote roles and out-of-state employers even as local Network Engineer pay posts a significant advertised increase.
What it means
Metro-wide wage compression against national benchmarks, paired with a contracting employment base, raises the stakes on retention for any specialized infrastructure or security talent — these employees have more leverage to leave for Columbus's data-center corridor or remote national postings than the metro's weekly wage data would suggest. Local Network Engineer pay climbing sharply while Systems Administrator pay holds flat points to a bifurcation: employers are willing to pay up for scarce infrastructure skill but not for commodity administration, a split that should inform where headcount dollars go versus where contract or outsourced staffing absorbs demand. Consider reviewing whether current infrastructure and security compensation bands reflect the region's accelerating Network Engineer and Cybersecurity Analyst movement, rather than legacy metro wage norms that no longer hold at the specialist tier.
Looking ahead
Worth watching: Trumbull County unemployment at 5.1% continues to run above Mahoning's 4.6%, and any further divergence may indicate uneven recovery across the metro that affects where candidate supply concentrates for infrastructure and support roles.
Emerging pressure point: Ohio's 18 WARN notices over the past 90 days are concentrated in manufacturing and transportation, not tech, but displaced workers with adjacent operational or logistics-systems experience may surface as viable candidates for infrastructure and support pipelines.
Potential inflection point: Columbus's continued rise as a top-six global data center market may accelerate outbound pull on Youngstown-area infrastructure and cloud talent; watch whether advertised Network Engineer pay keeps climbing in response or whether candidates simply relocate.
Early indicator: National Indeed Job Postings Index turning positive year-over-year for the first time in nearly four years bears watching locally — a genuine uptick in metro IT postings would be the clearest sign the contraction forecast is easing rather than deepening.
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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