{"schema_version": 1, "id": "anderson-in-msa/information-technology/2026-09", "product": "Labor Market Pulse", "metro": {"geography_id": 80, "label": "Anderson, IN MSA", "slug": "anderson-in-msa"}, "focus_area": {"key": "information_technology", "slug": "information-technology", "label": "Information Technology"}, "period": "2026-09", "public_after": "2026-09-01", "frozen_at": "2026-10-09T13:14:01.428942+00:00", "headline": "Anderson IT pay splits: security climbs, support slides.", "headline_summary": "Help Desk advertised pay fell to $49,273 in Anderson even as Cybersecurity Analyst pay rose to $91,478, while county unemployment at 3.6% runs above the broader metro's 3.4%.", "key_indicators": [{"label": "Madison County unemployment", "value": "3.6%", "context": "vs 3.4% Indianapolis-Carmel-Anderson MSA, 3.3% Indiana"}, {"label": "Madison County avg weekly wage", "value": "$993", "context": "vs $1,654 U.S. average, Q1 2026"}, {"label": "Indiana tech workforce share", "value": "3.85%", "context": "vs 5.8% nationally"}, {"label": "Indiana statewide job postings", "value": "102,000+", "context": "Late August 2026, signals continued demand"}], "takeaways": [{"headline": "Help desk pay is falling locally while security pay climbs.", "body": "Advertised Help Desk/IT Support pay in Anderson dropped significantly to $49,273 even as Cybersecurity Analyst pay rose to $91,478. The divergence reflects national skill-deprecation trends reaching this metro \u2014 commodity support roles are easier to fill or automate, while security remains Indiana's hardest-to-fill role statewide."}, {"headline": "Network Engineer pay is closing the gap with national rates.", "body": "Metro median advertised pay of $110,000 now sits close to the $114,400 national figure, both trending up significantly and moderately respectively. Infrastructure roles tied to on-prem and hybrid environments appear to be commanding near-national pay locally, eroding the traditional Indiana wage discount for this function."}, {"headline": "Software Engineer pay gap signals a local build constraint.", "body": "Anderson's advertised median of $86,784 remains far below the stable national figure of $153,652, even as it rises significantly locally. Organizations weighing build-vs-buy for custom development should treat this gap as evidence that scaling an internal engineering team locally means competing against a much shallower talent pool than the pay comparison alone suggests."}, {"headline": "County-level softening may create near-term hiring leverage.", "body": "Madison County's 3.6% unemployment, above the surrounding MSA's 3.4%, is consistent with modest labor slack building locally even as Indiana overall stays tight. IT leaders may find more negotiating room on support and admin hires in the next hiring cycle than headline Indiana tightness would imply."}], "local_conditions": "Madison County unemployment sits at 3.6% as of July 2026, running above both the Indianapolis-Carmel-Anderson MSA (3.4% in June) and the statewide rate of 3.3%, suggesting Anderson's labor market has softened relative to its metro peers even as Indiana holds near a three-year low. Weekly wages in Madison County average $993 against $1,654 nationally, a gap that reflects the area's manufacturing-and-healthcare employment base rather than any local tech-sector pull on pay.", "implications": "Anderson's wage base runs well below national tech pay levels, but cloud, DevOps and cybersecurity roles are increasingly priced against national remote-work benchmarks rather than local cost-of-living \u2014 meaning the Indiana discount that holds for on-prem support roles is eroding fastest where it would help most. IT leaders planning headcount for 2027 should assume commodity support and help desk functions remain locally staffable at a discount, while cloud architecture and security specialization require either national-level pay or a deliberate outsourcing strategy. Consider reviewing which infrastructure functions can be shifted to contract or managed-service arrangements before competing head-on for scarce cybersecurity talent at national rates.", "looking_ahead": [{"category": "Data release to watch", "body": "September BLS metro and county unemployment figures publish in early October and will show whether Madison County's July uptick to 3.6% was a blip or a trend. A continued rise would strengthen the case for delaying non-critical support hires."}, {"category": "Emerging pressure point", "body": "Statewide WARN filings remain modest (24 notices, 3,646 workers in 2026) but manufacturing accounts for the largest share. Watch whether any Madison County manufacturing disruption releases operations or logistics-adjacent IT talent into the local pool."}, {"category": "Early indicator", "body": "Cybersecurity's ranking as Indiana's hardest-to-fill role has not eased; track whether Anderson-area postings for security analysts begin offering remote flexibility, a signal that local employers are accepting national competition rather than local wage discipline."}, {"category": "Potential inflection point", "body": "Indeed's national Job Postings Index turned positive for the first time in nearly four years in September. If that momentum reaches Indiana postings data (currently over 102,000 statewide), it could tighten the Anderson labor pool further heading into Q4 budget planning."}], "roles": [{"role": "Data Scientist", "data_scope": "state_rollup", "metro_p25": 95590.25, "metro_p50": 124876.0, "metro_p75": 147016.0, "metro_trend_direction": "stable", "metro_trend_magnitude": "stable", "national_p50": 148250.0, "national_trend_direction": "up", "national_trend_magnitude": "moderate"}, {"role": "Systems Administrator", "data_scope": "state_rollup", "metro_p25": 70059.0, "metro_p50": 85780.0, "metro_p75": 94535.0, "metro_trend_direction": "stable", "metro_trend_magnitude": "stable", "national_p50": 101168.0, "national_trend_direction": "up", "national_trend_magnitude": "moderate"}, {"role": "Network Engineer", "data_scope": "state_rollup", "metro_p25": 76252.0, "metro_p50": 110000.0, "metro_p75": 124800.0, "metro_trend_direction": "up", "metro_trend_magnitude": "significant", "national_p50": 114400.0, "national_trend_direction": "up", "national_trend_magnitude": "moderate"}, {"role": "Software Engineer", "data_scope": "metro", "metro_p25": 74021.5, "metro_p50": 86784.0, "metro_p75": 86812.0, "metro_trend_direction": "up", "metro_trend_magnitude": "significant", "national_p50": 153652.0, "national_trend_direction": "stable", "national_trend_magnitude": "stable"}, {"role": "Help Desk/IT Support Specialist", "data_scope": "metro", "metro_p25": 38262.0, "metro_p50": 49272.8, "metro_p75": 81740.0, "metro_trend_direction": "down", "metro_trend_magnitude": "significant", "national_p50": 53644.0, "national_trend_direction": "stable", "national_trend_magnitude": "stable"}, {"role": "Cybersecurity Analyst", "data_scope": "state_rollup", "metro_p25": 75903.0, "metro_p50": 91478.0, "metro_p75": 99347.0, "metro_trend_direction": "up", "metro_trend_magnitude": "moderate", "national_p50": 106790.0, "national_trend_direction": "up", "national_trend_magnitude": "moderate"}, {"role": "IT Project Manager", "data_scope": "state_rollup", "metro_p25": 92584.0, "metro_p50": 114590.0, "metro_p75": 123652.0, "metro_trend_direction": "up", "metro_trend_magnitude": "moderate", "national_p50": 117530.0, "national_trend_direction": "up", "national_trend_magnitude": "moderate"}], "industry_snapshot": [], "citations": [], "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": "October 2026", "files": {"html": "anderson-in-msa/information-technology/2026-09.html", "pdf": "anderson-in-msa/information-technology/2026-09.pdf"}, "published_at": "2026-10-09T14:30:20.508560+00:00", "report_html_url": "https://reports.wagescape.com/archive/v1/editions/anderson-in-msa/information-technology/2026-09.html", "report_pdf_url": "https://reports.wagescape.com/archive/v1/editions/anderson-in-msa/information-technology/2026-09.pdf"}