{"schema_version": 1, "id": "ar-nonmetropolitan-area/information-technology/2026-10", "product": "Labor Market Pulse", "metro": {"geography_id": 49, "label": "AR NONMETROPOLITAN AREA", "slug": "ar-nonmetropolitan-area"}, "focus_area": {"key": "information_technology", "slug": "information-technology", "label": "Information Technology"}, "period": "2026-10", "public_after": "2026-10-01", "frozen_at": "2026-11-03T02:54:33.235067+00:00", "headline": "Nonmetro Arkansas security and network pay slide as national rates climb.", "headline_summary": "Cybersecurity Analyst pay fell to $86,047 locally while climbing to $107,327 nationally, and Network Engineer pay dropped to $76,753 against a national median of $115,757 \u2014 a gap that raises retention risk in a state labor market holding at 3.9% unemployment.", "key_indicators": [{"label": "Arkansas unemployment rate", "value": "3.9%", "context": "Unchanged since August; 8th straight month of decline"}, {"label": "Cybersecurity Analyst pay gap", "value": "$86,047 vs $107,327", "context": "Metro down moderately vs national up moderately"}, {"label": "Network Engineer pay gap", "value": "$76,753 vs $115,757", "context": "Metro down significantly vs national up moderately"}, {"label": "Arkansas avg weekly wage change", "value": "-0.7%", "context": "YoY decline despite 5.8% statewide disbursement growth"}], "takeaways": [{"headline": "Network Engineer pay is falling locally while national demand firms up.", "body": "Metro median sits at $76,753 against a national figure of $115,757, a gap that has widened this month as local pay moved down significantly while national pay rose moderately. Nonmetro employers risk losing infrastructure talent to remote-eligible roles paying near national rates."}, {"headline": "Cybersecurity Analyst compensation is moving the wrong direction for a tight skills market.", "body": "Local advertised pay fell moderately to $86,047 even as national pay climbed to $107,327, a divergence that is hard to justify given statewide labor force tightening and a documented statewide STEM shortage. Underpricing security talent locally invites quiet attrition to remote national employers."}, {"headline": "IT Project Manager is the lone role tracking national parity.", "body": "Metro median of $118,055 sits essentially even with the national figure of $118,150, both trending up moderately \u2014 a signal that project management expertise is being priced competitively even in nonmetro Arkansas. This may reflect demand tied to data center and infrastructure buildout activity requiring local coordination."}, {"headline": "Falling average weekly wages statewide complicate IT retention messaging.", "body": "Arkansas average weekly wages dipped 0.7% year-over-year even as total wage disbursements rose 5.8%, suggesting growth is concentrated in specific sectors and is not broad-based. IT leaders citing statewide wage strength in compensation conversations should verify the claim against role-specific advertised pay data instead of aggregate state figures."}], "local_conditions": "Arkansas nonmetro counties are riding the state's broader labor tightening, with the statewide unemployment rate holding at 3.9% through September and the civilian labor force expanding for an eighth straight month, even as county-level unemployment ranges from 2.8% in Madison County to 7.2% in Phillips County. Wage and salary disbursements statewide are up 5.8% for FY2026, but average weekly wages actually dipped 0.7% year-over-year, signaling that broad income growth is masking stagnation in specific sectors \u2014 including IT roles advertised in nonmetro counties, where several postings show declining pay against rising national medians.", "implications": "Diverging metro-versus-national pay trajectories \u2014 Network Engineer down significantly locally while up moderately nationally, Cybersecurity Analyst down locally while up nationally \u2014 point to a nonmetro IT labor pool that is pricing scarcity differently than national markets, raising retention exposure for infrastructure and security staff who can benchmark against national remote postings. Thin local STEM pipeline, reinforced by the University of Arkansas's decade-long Vision 2035 engineering expansion plan, suggests build-vs-buy calculus should weight outsourcing or distributed hiring more heavily for specialized roles that local supply cannot fill competitively. Consider reviewing advertised pay for security and network roles against national medians now, before mismatched compensation accelerates attrition into remote or metro-based employers.", "looking_ahead": [{"category": "Emerging pressure point", "body": "Network Engineer and Cybersecurity Analyst pay are falling locally while national pay climbs \u2014 watch whether this gap triggers visible attrition over the next two pay cycles, particularly among staff with remote-work options."}, {"category": "Policy risk", "body": "Little Rock's consideration of a data center moratorium, layered onto broader public backlash against AI infrastructure, could slow planned hybrid and cloud expansion projects that depend on new data center capacity in the region."}, {"category": "Worth watching", "body": "University of Arkansas's Vision 2035 engineering expansion is a decade-long play; near-term, expect no meaningful change in local technical talent supply, reinforcing continued reliance on outsourcing and remote hiring for specialized infrastructure and security roles."}, {"category": "Early indicator", "body": "County-level unemployment divergence, from 2.8% in Madison County to 7.2% in Phillips County, suggests uneven labor availability across nonmetro Arkansas \u2014 worth mapping against where IT support and help desk roles are sited for hybrid staffing models."}], "roles": [{"role": "Data Scientist", "data_scope": "metro", "metro_p25": 118328.0, "metro_p50": 128371.0, "metro_p75": 136833.5, "metro_trend_direction": "down", "metro_trend_magnitude": "moderate", "national_p50": 145881.0, "national_trend_direction": "stable", "national_trend_magnitude": "stable"}, {"role": "Systems Administrator", "data_scope": "metro", "metro_p25": 69555.5, "metro_p50": 86853.4, "metro_p75": 90000.0, "metro_trend_direction": "stable", "metro_trend_magnitude": "stable", "national_p50": 102503.0, "national_trend_direction": "up", "national_trend_magnitude": "moderate"}, {"role": "Network Engineer", "data_scope": "metro", "metro_p25": 49098.5, "metro_p50": 76753.0, "metro_p75": 88350.75, "metro_trend_direction": "down", "metro_trend_magnitude": "significant", "national_p50": 115757.0, "national_trend_direction": "up", "national_trend_magnitude": "moderate"}, {"role": "Software Engineer", "data_scope": "metro", "metro_p25": 89743.0, "metro_p50": 132966.8, "metro_p75": 142489.5, "metro_trend_direction": "down", "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": 42669.0, "metro_p50": 51895.0, "metro_p75": 63781.0, "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": 78725.25, "metro_p50": 86047.2, "metro_p75": 87681.75, "metro_trend_direction": "down", "metro_trend_magnitude": "moderate", "national_p50": 107327.0, "national_trend_direction": "up", "national_trend_magnitude": "moderate"}, {"role": "IT Project Manager", "data_scope": "state_rollup", "metro_p25": 99848.0, "metro_p50": 118055.0, "metro_p75": 125638.0, "metro_trend_direction": "up", "metro_trend_magnitude": "moderate", "national_p50": 118149.8, "national_trend_direction": "stable", "national_trend_magnitude": "stable"}], "industry_snapshot": [], "citations": [{"source_name": "Arkansas Department of Commerce / BLS via Magnolia Reporter", "source_url": null, "statement": "Arkansas unemployment rate held at 3.9% in September, 8th consecutive monthly decline"}, {"source_name": "USAFacts/BLS", "source_url": null, "statement": "County unemployment ranged from 2.8% (Madison) to 7.2% (Phillips) in August 2026"}, {"source_name": "USA Facts / Arkansas fiscal forecast", "source_url": null, "statement": "Arkansas average weekly wage fell 0.7% year-over-year despite 5.8% FY2026 wage growth"}, {"source_name": "University of Arkansas College of Engineering", "source_url": null, "statement": "University of Arkansas launched Vision 2035 engineering expansion plan"}, {"source_name": "Local Arkansas news coverage", "source_url": null, "statement": "Little Rock Board considering data center moratorium amid public backlash"}], "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": "ar-nonmetropolitan-area/information-technology/2026-10.html", "pdf": "ar-nonmetropolitan-area/information-technology/2026-10.pdf"}, "published_at": "2026-11-03T08:18:00.264273+00:00", "report_html_url": "https://reports.wagescape.com/archive/v1/editions/ar-nonmetropolitan-area/information-technology/2026-10.html", "report_pdf_url": "https://reports.wagescape.com/archive/v1/editions/ar-nonmetropolitan-area/information-technology/2026-10.pdf"}