Labor Market Pulse · Information Technology · October 2026
Information Technology Labor Market Report: Youngstown-Warren-Boardman, OH-PA MSA — October 2026
Youngstown IT pay splits sharply along infrastructure lines.
Network Engineer pay rose significantly to a $84,500 metro median while Help Desk pay fell to $45,000, against a metro unemployment rate near 4.7-4.8% that remains well above Ohio's 3.4% statewide figure.
Free archive edition. Published by WageScape as sent to subscribers; data as of October 2026.
Key indicators
- Mahoning County unemployment: 4.7% — vs 3.4% Ohio statewide, Sept 2026
- Metro weekly wages vs national: $1,059 — vs $1,654 US average, Q1 2026
- Youngstown-Warren nonfarm payrolls: 166,100 — down 1,200 from June to July 2026
- Ohio technician labor gap: 5 jobs per candidate — statewide technician shortage ratio
Key takeaways
Network engineer pay is accelerating faster than any other local IT role.
Metro median advertised pay of $84,500 reflects a significant upward trend against a flat Software Engineer and Data Scientist market — a signal that infrastructure and data center-adjacent buildout is driving local wage pressure. Compensation reviews for infrastructure roles may need more frequent cadence than application-development roles this cycle.
Help desk compression frees budget, but the savings carry risk.
Local Help Desk pay fell to $45,000, moderately down alongside a national decline, likely reflecting commoditized entry-level support work amid high local unemployment supplying ample candidates. Redirecting that budget toward retention of scarce network and security talent may be more defensible than holding headcount flat across tiers.
JobsOhio's technician subsidy rewards build over buy — but only for committed employers.
Up to $10,000 per worker is available through the JobsOhio Technician Path program, but it requires 1:1 employer matching, making it a meaningful offset mainly for organizations already planning internal upskilling. Ohio's five-to-one technician job-to-candidate ratio suggests the internal-build case is getting stronger regardless of the subsidy.
Wage gap with national IT pay is widening the case for hybrid staffing models.
Q1 2026 metro weekly wages ($1,059) sit 36% below the national average ($1,654), while Network Engineer and Systems Administrator pay still trail national medians by roughly 25-27%. That spread makes Youngstown a plausible low-cost hub for infrastructure and support functions even as leadership competes nationally for cloud-native and AI-adjacent specialists.
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 * | $111,207 | $138,400 | $156,390 | Stable | $145,881 |
| Systems Administrator | $70,110 | $78,043 | $82,975 | Moderate increase | $102,503 |
| Network Engineer | $75,000 | $84,500 | $90,000 | Significant increase | $115,757 |
| Software Engineer * | $109,020 | $148,707 | $163,905 | Stable | $154,403 |
| Help Desk/IT Support Specialist | $41,252 | $45,000 | $47,417 | Moderate decline | $53,129 |
| Cybersecurity Analyst * | $82,532 | $102,518 | $118,918 | Moderate increase | $107,327 |
| IT Project Manager * | $88,076 | $111,411 | $124,800 | Stable | $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
Mahoning and Trumbull counties posted 4.7% and 4.8% unemployment in September, well above Ohio's 3.4% statewide rate, even as Youngstown-Warren nonfarm payrolls slipped to 166,100 in July — a labor pool with more available workers than the state average, but a shrinking overall job base. Weekly wages in the metro averaged $1,059 in Q1 2026 against $1,654 nationally, a gap that shapes how far an IT compensation budget stretches locally versus how far it needs to stretch to compete for mobile technical talent.
What it means
Local network engineer pay is up significantly (metro median $84,500) and systems administrator pay is up moderately ($78,043), both trailing national medians by $30,000+, which signals Youngstown employers bidding up scarce infrastructure skills off a lower base instead of pricing to national-market levels. Help desk pay is down moderately locally and nationally, consistent with Ohio's five-open-technician-jobs-per-candidate ratio pushing employers to automate or outsource tier-one support while reserving budget increases for roles tied to data center and network buildout. Current conditions suggest reviewing whether infrastructure and network engineering headcount budgets reflect the pace of local advertised pay movement, even where absolute dollars remain below national figures.
Looking ahead
Expected: October county-level unemployment data releases November 20 — watch whether Mahoning and Trumbull hold near 4.7-4.8% or continue the slow improvement seen since June's 6.5% Youngstown city peak.
Emerging pressure point: Ohio's TechCred credential reimbursement program has already exhausted its fiscal-year budget, meaning upskilling subsidies for current IT staff are unavailable until new funding cycles — plan internal training budgets without counting on state reimbursement.
Worth watching: National tech layoffs have already topped 133,000 for the year through October 21, concentrated in large tech hubs; watch whether any of that displaced talent, particularly infrastructure and cloud specialists, begins surfacing in the Mahoning Valley candidate pool.
Potential inflection point: Nonfarm payrolls in Youngstown-Warren fell 1,200 between June and July; a continued decline alongside rising Network Engineer and Systems Administrator pay would point to a market contracting in headcount while concentrating wage growth in a narrow band of infrastructure roles.
Sources
- Ohio Department of Job and Family Services — Mahoning and Trumbull county unemployment rates for September 2026
- Ohio Labor Market Review — Youngstown-Warren nonfarm payroll employment for July 2026
- U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics — Q1 2026 average weekly wages, Youngstown metro vs. US
- JobsOhio — Ohio technician job-to-candidate ratio and JobsOhio subsidy program details
- Ohio Department of Development — TechCred credential reimbursement program budget exhaustion
- Layoffs.fyi — National tech layoff total exceeding 133,000 through October 21, 2026
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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