{"schema_version": 1, "id": "ames-ia-msa/information-technology/2026-10", "product": "Labor Market Pulse", "metro": {"geography_id": 99, "label": "Ames, IA MSA", "slug": "ames-ia-msa"}, "focus_area": {"key": "information_technology", "slug": "information-technology", "label": "Information Technology"}, "period": "2026-10", "public_after": "2026-10-01", "frozen_at": "2026-11-03T02:56:47.969856+00:00", "headline": "Ames IT infrastructure pay overtakes national rates as talent tightens.", "headline_summary": "Systems Administrator pay in Ames hit $122,866 against a national median of $102,503, even as metro unemployment held at 3.0% and the area shed 800 jobs in August.", "key_indicators": [{"label": "Ames MSA unemployment rate", "value": "3.0%", "context": "vs 4.1% national, 3.2% Iowa statewide"}, {"label": "Ames metro job change", "value": "-800 jobs", "context": "August 2026, against historically tight local market"}, {"label": "Iowa tech employment growth", "value": "1.5%", "context": "vs 1.9% national growth (CompTIA 2026)"}, {"label": "Iowa labor force participation", "value": "66.9%", "context": "down from 67.8% one year prior"}], "takeaways": [{"headline": "Local infrastructure pay is closing the gap with national rates fast.", "body": "Systems Administrator and Network Engineer advertised pay in Ames now exceed national medians, a reversal from the typical metro discount pattern. This suggests employers are paying a scarcity premium for on-prem and hybrid skills that national remote-hiring pools aren't filling locally."}, {"headline": "IT Project Manager pay is falling sharply while software roles hold steady.", "body": "Metro IT Project Manager pay dropped significantly to $76,954 against a stable national median of $118,150 \u2014 a $41,000 gap that may reflect fewer large-scale local project initiatives or a shift toward embedding PM duties into engineering roles. Worth testing against actual requisition data before assuming demand has cooled."}, {"headline": "Help Desk compression signals a tier IT leaders may stop staffing locally.", "body": "Metro Help Desk pay fell significantly to $48,000, well below the already-soft $53,129 national figure. Combined with 87% of tech leaders reporting they pay premiums for specialized skills elsewhere, this looks like a candidate for offshore or outsourced support ahead of continued local hiring."}, {"headline": "Statewide tech job growth trails the nation, tightening the competitive pool further.", "body": "CompTIA projects Iowa tech employment growth of 1.5% in 2026 versus 1.9% nationally, even as Iowa's median tech wage of $91,677 runs 94% above the state's all-occupation median. Slower growth plus a wage premium suggests retention economics favor counteroffers over new recruitment in most IT functions."}], "local_conditions": "Ames MSA unemployment held near 3.0% in September, well below the 4.1% national rate, even as the metro shed 800 jobs in August against a backdrop of Iowa State University and state government employment anchoring the local base. Iowa's statewide labor force participation decline to 66.9% and a persistent tech talent gap \u2014 the Technology Association of Iowa flags access to skilled workers as its top industry challenge \u2014 mean Ames employers are competing for a shrinking pool of IT talent even as broader headcount growth slows.", "implications": "Infrastructure and support roles in Ames are commanding advertised pay increases that outpace national trends \u2014 Systems Administrator pay up significantly to a metro median of $122,866 versus $102,503 nationally \u2014 suggesting local employers are bidding aggressively for scarce on-prem and hybrid talent and placing less reliance on remote hires from larger markets. That dynamic, paired with national data showing 41% of technologists would trade salary for remote flexibility, may create an opportunity to recruit infrastructure and security talent remotely at lower cost, easing the pressure to compete dollar-for-dollar in a tight local market. Consider reviewing whether current Systems Administrator and Network Engineer pay levels reflect scarcity premiums or signal an overdue correction from historic underpricing relative to national rates.", "looking_ahead": [{"category": "Worth watching", "body": "Wells Fargo's 86-person West Des Moines layoff effective December 26 brings the bank's 2026 Iowa cuts to 460 workers; watch whether displaced financial-services IT and infrastructure staff surface in the Ames candidate pool over the next quarter."}, {"category": "Emerging pressure point", "body": "Professional, scientific, and technical services accounted for half of Iowa's September job losses even after adding 1,200 jobs since April, a volatility pattern that complicates headcount planning assumptions for IT-adjacent consulting and contract staff."}, {"category": "Early indicator", "body": "National data center postings, measured by job ads which track hiring demand and often cover several openings each, grew 20% in three months while tech-hub metros pull back hiring; monitor whether Iowa's existing data center base (supporting 9,139 jobs and $828 million in labor income) attracts similar infrastructure investment and associated local hiring."}, {"category": "Potential inflection point", "body": "Ames MSA's August job loss of 800 positions, against a historically tight 2.86% long-term unemployment average, raises the question of whether local contraction is sector-specific or a leading signal for broader metro softening worth tracking in the next two jobs reports."}], "roles": [{"role": "Data Scientist", "data_scope": "metro", "metro_p25": 107775.0, "metro_p50": 118965.0, "metro_p75": 146318.5, "metro_trend_direction": "up", "metro_trend_magnitude": "moderate", "national_p50": 145881.0, "national_trend_direction": "stable", "national_trend_magnitude": "stable"}, {"role": "Systems Administrator", "data_scope": "metro", "metro_p25": 83282.5, "metro_p50": 122866.2, "metro_p75": 124777.0, "metro_trend_direction": "up", "metro_trend_magnitude": "significant", "national_p50": 102503.0, "national_trend_direction": "up", "national_trend_magnitude": "moderate"}, {"role": "Network Engineer", "data_scope": "metro", "metro_p25": 78619.0, "metro_p50": 116664.8, "metro_p75": 121350.0, "metro_trend_direction": "up", "metro_trend_magnitude": "significant", "national_p50": 115757.0, "national_trend_direction": "up", "national_trend_magnitude": "moderate"}, {"role": "Software Engineer", "data_scope": "metro", "metro_p25": 101797.75, "metro_p50": 121326.2, "metro_p75": 140582.0, "metro_trend_direction": "up", "metro_trend_magnitude": "moderate", "national_p50": 154403.0, "national_trend_direction": "stable", "national_trend_magnitude": "stable"}, {"role": "Help Desk/IT Support Specialist", "data_scope": "metro", "metro_p25": 39520.0, "metro_p50": 48000.0, "metro_p75": 53196.0, "metro_trend_direction": "down", "metro_trend_magnitude": "significant", "national_p50": 53129.0, "national_trend_direction": "down", "national_trend_magnitude": "moderate"}, {"role": "Cybersecurity Analyst", "data_scope": "metro", "metro_p25": 85020.25, "metro_p50": 113751.0, "metro_p75": 113789.0, "metro_trend_direction": "up", "metro_trend_magnitude": "moderate", "national_p50": 107327.0, "national_trend_direction": "up", "national_trend_magnitude": "moderate"}, {"role": "IT Project Manager", "data_scope": "metro", "metro_p25": 76954.0, "metro_p50": 76954.0, "metro_p75": 91875.0, "metro_trend_direction": "down", "metro_trend_magnitude": "significant", "national_p50": 118149.8, "national_trend_direction": "stable", "national_trend_magnitude": "stable"}], "industry_snapshot": [], "citations": [{"source_name": "U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics", "source_url": null, "statement": "Ames MSA unemployment rate and August job loss of 800 positions"}, {"source_name": "Technology Association of Iowa", "source_url": null, "statement": "Technology Association of Iowa citing talent access as top industry challenge"}, {"source_name": "Industry workforce survey (national IT labor market research)", "source_url": null, "statement": "41% of technologists would trade salary for remote flexibility"}, {"source_name": "CompTIA", "source_url": null, "statement": "Iowa tech employment growth projection of 1.5% vs 1.9% national"}, {"source_name": "Rolling Out", "source_url": null, "statement": "Wells Fargo West Des Moines layoff of 86 workers effective Dec. 26, 2026"}, {"source_name": "Industry labor market research (national)", "source_url": null, "statement": "Data center postings grew 20% in three months nationally"}], "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.", "edition_label": "November 2026", "files": {"html": "ames-ia-msa/information-technology/2026-10.html", "pdf": "ames-ia-msa/information-technology/2026-10.pdf"}, "published_at": "2026-11-03T08:17:45.018581+00:00", "report_html_url": "https://reports.wagescape.com/archive/v1/editions/ames-ia-msa/information-technology/2026-10.html", "report_pdf_url": "https://reports.wagescape.com/archive/v1/editions/ames-ia-msa/information-technology/2026-10.pdf"}