{"schema_version": 1, "id": "anchorage-ak-msa/information-technology/2026-10", "product": "Labor Market Pulse", "metro": {"geography_id": 34, "label": "Anchorage, AK MSA", "slug": "anchorage-ak-msa"}, "focus_area": {"key": "information_technology", "slug": "information-technology", "label": "Information Technology"}, "period": "2026-10", "public_after": "2026-10-01", "frozen_at": "2026-11-03T02:58:06.038838+00:00", "headline": "Anchorage IT pay splits: infrastructure up, project management down.", "headline_summary": "Systems Administrator pay climbed to a $93,179 metro median while IT Project Manager pay fell to $87,852, against a backdrop of 3.4% unemployment and a cybersecurity talent supply ratio of just 67%.", "key_indicators": [{"label": "Anchorage unemployment rate", "value": "3.4%", "context": "vs 4.1% national, MSA at 3.6%"}, {"label": "Cybersecurity talent supply ratio", "value": "67%", "context": "vs 96% in Washington state"}, {"label": "Systems Administrator advertised pay", "value": "$93,179", "context": "up significantly vs $102,503 national"}, {"label": "IT Project Manager advertised pay", "value": "$87,852", "context": "down significantly vs $118,150 national"}], "takeaways": [{"headline": "Systems Administrator pay is outrunning the national trend.", "body": "Metro median advertised pay climbed to $93,179, a significant local increase even as the national figure ($102,503) rose only moderately. Local infrastructure roles appear to be absorbing Anchorage's labor-supply constraint directly into pay."}, {"headline": "IT Project Manager pay is falling against a stable national market.", "body": "Metro median pay dropped significantly to $87,852 while national pay held near $118,150, widening the local-national gap to roughly 26%. This may signal employers deprioritizing dedicated PM headcount in favor of distributing coordination work across technical leads, or substituting remote PM talent for local hires."}, {"headline": "Cybersecurity scarcity is a staffing-model problem as much as a pay problem.", "body": "A 67% qualified-talent supply ratio against Washington's 96%, alongside 35% growth in job listings, means raising offers alone won't close the gap. Organizations relying solely on local hiring for security functions face a structural ceiling that favors managed security services or distributed teams."}, {"headline": "Software Engineer and Data Scientist pay gains point to selective local investment.", "body": "Both roles saw significant local pay increases ($136,063 and $122,458 respectively) even as national medians held stable, suggesting Anchorage employers are competing hard for a narrow set of specialized technical hires."}], "local_conditions": "Anchorage's 3.4% unemployment rate and the broader MSA's 3.6% reflect a market where labor supply is the binding constraint on hiring demand, a dynamic the Anchorage Economic Development Corporation has flagged as structural. Statewide IT-specific scarcity compounds this: Anchorage's cybersecurity talent supply ratio sits at 67% against Washington state's 96%, even as cybersecurity job listings grew 35% and advertised pay for the role ranges as high as $192,000.", "implications": "Advertised pay for Systems Administrators rose to a metro median of $93,179 while IT Project Manager pay fell to $87,852 \u2014 a split that suggests infrastructure and hands-on technical roles are commanding premiums Anchorage employers can't avoid, while coordination-heavy roles face softer local demand or easier remote substitution. With a 20-25% premium over Lower 48 base pay required to retain executive and senior technical talent, and 266 open remote IT roles statewide pulling against the same shallow local pool, build-vs-buy calculus is shifting toward hybrid staffing models for specialized infrastructure and security functions. Consider evaluating which IT roles require in-market presence and which could be filled through remote-hybrid arrangements or managed service providers to reduce exposure to Anchorage's supply constraint.", "looking_ahead": [{"category": "Emerging pressure point", "body": "Statewide tech layoffs are running far ahead of national trend contributors like Intel's 1,509-worker WARN filing, yet Anchorage's unemployment sits near historic lows. Watch whether any released technical talent from Lower 48 layoffs relocates or goes remote into Alaska's thin candidate pool."}, {"category": "Worth watching", "body": "State of Alaska IT Client Support Specialist roles pay roughly $5,724 per month, well under private-sector and even help desk market rates locally. Expect continued attrition from public-sector IT into private employers, particularly energy and healthcare, through year-end."}, {"category": "Potential inflection point", "body": "Minimum wage rises to $15.00 on July 1, 2027 with annual inflation adjustments beginning 2028, compressing the gap between entry-level support wages and skilled technical roles. Review whether Help Desk/IT Support pay (metro median $53,784) retains enough separation from rising wage-floor roles to preserve internal pay equity."}, {"category": "Expected", "body": "ConocoPhillips and GCI continue advertising senior technical roles above $300,000, a level most Anchorage IT employers cannot match. Expect these employers to keep pulling senior talent out of smaller organizations' pipelines, intensifying succession-planning risk for mid-market IT shops."}], "roles": [{"role": "Data Scientist", "data_scope": "metro", "metro_p25": 68694.0, "metro_p50": 122458.4, "metro_p75": 132700.0, "metro_trend_direction": "up", "metro_trend_magnitude": "significant", "national_p50": 145881.0, "national_trend_direction": "stable", "national_trend_magnitude": "stable"}, {"role": "Systems Administrator", "data_scope": "metro", "metro_p25": 76026.25, "metro_p50": 93178.8, "metro_p75": 102500.0, "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": 61870.0, "metro_p50": 90137.0, "metro_p75": 103098.0, "metro_trend_direction": "stable", "metro_trend_magnitude": "stable", "national_p50": 115757.0, "national_trend_direction": "up", "national_trend_magnitude": "moderate"}, {"role": "Software Engineer", "data_scope": "metro", "metro_p25": 93883.0, "metro_p50": 136063.0, "metro_p75": 157773.0, "metro_trend_direction": "up", "metro_trend_magnitude": "significant", "national_p50": 154403.0, "national_trend_direction": "stable", "national_trend_magnitude": "stable"}, {"role": "Help Desk/IT Support Specialist", "data_scope": "metro", "metro_p25": 39675.0, "metro_p50": 53784.0, "metro_p75": 67263.0, "metro_trend_direction": "stable", "metro_trend_magnitude": "stable", "national_p50": 53129.0, "national_trend_direction": "down", "national_trend_magnitude": "moderate"}, {"role": "Cybersecurity Analyst", "data_scope": "metro", "metro_p25": 84807.0, "metro_p50": 90891.6, "metro_p75": 109151.0, "metro_trend_direction": "stable", "metro_trend_magnitude": "stable", "national_p50": 107327.0, "national_trend_direction": "up", "national_trend_magnitude": "moderate"}, {"role": "IT Project Manager", "data_scope": "metro", "metro_p25": 78811.0, "metro_p50": 87852.4, "metro_p75": 111541.75, "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": "Alaska Department of Labor and Workforce Development", "source_url": "https://laborstats.alaska.gov", "statement": "Anchorage unemployment at 3.4%, MSA at 3.6%, labor supply is binding constraint"}, {"source_name": "Anchorage Economic Development Corporation", "source_url": null, "statement": "Cybersecurity job listings up 35%, supply ratio 67% vs Washington's 96%"}, {"source_name": "Alaska IT labor market research notes", "source_url": null, "statement": "20-25% compensation premium required over Lower 48 for comparable roles"}, {"source_name": "California WARN Act tracker / LayoffAlert", "source_url": null, "statement": "Intel WARN notice for 1,509 workers effective Oct. 31, 2026"}, {"source_name": "Ballot Measure 1, Alaska", "source_url": null, "statement": "Alaska minimum wage reaches $15.00 July 1, 2027 with inflation adjustments from 2028"}, {"source_name": "State of Alaska job postings", "source_url": null, "statement": "State of Alaska IT Client Support Specialist pay near $5,724/month"}], "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": "anchorage-ak-msa/information-technology/2026-10.html", "pdf": "anchorage-ak-msa/information-technology/2026-10.pdf"}, "published_at": "2026-11-03T08:17:47.347879+00:00", "report_html_url": "https://reports.wagescape.com/archive/v1/editions/anchorage-ak-msa/information-technology/2026-10.html", "report_pdf_url": "https://reports.wagescape.com/archive/v1/editions/anchorage-ak-msa/information-technology/2026-10.pdf"}