{"schema_version": 1, "id": "atlantic-city-nj-msa/information-technology/2026-10", "product": "Labor Market Pulse", "metro": {"geography_id": 107, "label": "Atlantic City, NJ MSA", "slug": "atlantic-city-nj-msa"}, "focus_area": {"key": "information_technology", "slug": "information-technology", "label": "Information Technology"}, "period": "2026-10", "public_after": "2026-10-01", "frozen_at": "2026-11-03T02:59:51.454949+00:00", "headline": "Atlantic City's cybersecurity pay falls as national demand climbs.", "headline_summary": "Metro Cybersecurity Analyst advertised pay dropped to $73,866, a $33,000 gap below the national median of $107,327, even as local unemployment improved to 4.8% in September.", "key_indicators": [{"label": "Atlantic County unemployment", "value": "4.8%", "context": "Down from 5.4% in August 2026"}, {"label": "Cybersecurity Analyst pay gap", "value": "$73,866 vs $107,327", "context": "Metro vs national median, metro falling"}, {"label": "Leisure & hospitality job losses", "value": "-1,400 jobs (-2.3%)", "context": "Year-over-year, 32% of metro payrolls"}, {"label": "NJ tech sector forecast growth", "value": "+1.4% (4,305 jobs)", "context": "Statewide 2026 forecast, tech workforce ~303,000"}], "takeaways": [{"headline": "Cybersecurity pay is falling locally while national demand rises.", "body": "Metro advertised pay for Cybersecurity Analyst dropped significantly to $73,866 even as the national median climbed to $107,327 on moderate growth. A gap this wide typically precedes attrition to remote national employers and points to weak local demand rather than a cooling national market."}, {"headline": "Help desk pay is outrunning the national trend.", "body": "Local Help Desk/IT Support advertised pay rose significantly to $59,284 while the national figure fell moderately to $53,129. AtlantiCare's expansion and healthcare-sector hiring appear to be pulling support-tier wages upward locally, a signal worth tracking when budgeting frontline IT support headcount."}, {"headline": "Network Engineer pay still commands a premium over national rates.", "body": "Metro Network Engineer advertised pay sits at $129,474 against a national median of $115,757, even as the metro figure holds stable. Casino and hospitality infrastructure needs may be sustaining this premium, making the role a relative bright spot for retention planning."}, {"headline": "Software Engineer and IT Project Manager pay softening locally signals leverage shift.", "body": "Both roles show moderate local declines ($109,936 and $110,961 respectively) against stable-to-flat national figures, consistent with thinner local demand for generalist technical and delivery talent. Current conditions suggest employers may have near-term room to negotiate on these roles, but should weigh it against statewide tech employment forecast to grow 1.4% in 2026."}], "local_conditions": "Atlantic County's unemployment rate improved to 4.8% in September, down from 5.4% in August, though the metro's casino-driven leisure and hospitality sector \u2014 still 32% of nonfarm payrolls \u2014 shed 1,400 jobs year-over-year, pressuring the local wage base that underpins IT and support hiring. Education and health services added 800 positions on the back of AtlantiCare's $75 million expansion, a rare pocket of local labor demand growth that contrasts with the broader metro's -3.9% 12-month payroll decline reported in July.", "implications": "Metro conditions point toward a bifurcated IT labor market: infrastructure-adjacent and support roles tied to healthcare and hospitality operations show pay pressure upward (Help Desk/IT Support Specialist advertised pay up significantly to $59,284), while higher-skill technical roles \u2014 Cybersecurity Analyst, Software Engineer, IT Project Manager \u2014 show advertised pay declining locally even as national demand for those same skills climbs. That divergence signals weak local employer competition for specialized technical talent amid a national market that remains active, raising retention risk for any technologist with cloud security or AI-adjacent skills who can command national-market pay remotely. Consider reviewing retention economics for cybersecurity and senior engineering staff now, before a national employer with a remote-friendly offer closes the $33,000-plus local-to-national pay gap evident in cybersecurity analyst advertised rates.", "looking_ahead": [{"category": "Early indicator", "body": "Watch whether Atlantic County's improving unemployment rate (4.8% in September, down from 5.4%) continues into October's BLS release. A sustained drop would tighten the local candidate pool just as leisure and hospitality payrolls remain down 1,400 jobs year-over-year."}, {"category": "Emerging pressure point", "body": "New Jersey's statewide WARN pace is the heaviest since 2020, with Prudential and JPMorgan Chase filings totaling over 860 combined cuts in 2026. Displaced financial-services technologists may begin surfacing in the South Jersey candidate pool over the next 60 days."}, {"category": "Worth watching", "body": "National tech layoffs have already exceeded 133,000 workers through late October, outpacing all of 2025. Track whether any of that national talent supply reaches Atlantic City given the metro's below-average advertised pay for mid-to-senior technical roles."}, {"category": "Potential inflection point", "body": "AtlantiCare's expansion-driven hiring in education and health services is one of the few local growth stories; monitor whether it extends into IT and systems administration hiring tied to healthcare infrastructure, which could lift Systems Administrator pay beyond its current stable $95,000 median."}], "roles": [{"role": "Data Scientist", "data_scope": "metro", "metro_p25": 92458.0, "metro_p50": 92785.0, "metro_p75": 125280.0, "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": 80487.5, "metro_p50": 95000.0, "metro_p75": 102944.0, "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": 87000.0, "metro_p50": 129474.0, "metro_p75": 139713.0, "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": 68081.0, "metro_p50": 109936.0, "metro_p75": 119442.0, "metro_trend_direction": "down", "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": 53075.5, "metro_p50": 59284.4, "metro_p75": 67600.0, "metro_trend_direction": "up", "metro_trend_magnitude": "significant", "national_p50": 53129.0, "national_trend_direction": "down", "national_trend_magnitude": "moderate"}, {"role": "Cybersecurity Analyst", "data_scope": "metro", "metro_p25": 70000.0, "metro_p50": 73865.8, "metro_p75": 80391.0, "metro_trend_direction": "down", "metro_trend_magnitude": "significant", "national_p50": 107327.0, "national_trend_direction": "up", "national_trend_magnitude": "moderate"}, {"role": "IT Project Manager", "data_scope": "metro", "metro_p25": 79880.0, "metro_p50": 110961.2, "metro_p75": 121404.75, "metro_trend_direction": "down", "metro_trend_magnitude": "moderate", "national_p50": 118149.8, "national_trend_direction": "stable", "national_trend_magnitude": "stable"}], "industry_snapshot": [], "citations": [{"source_name": "Federal Reserve Economic Data / BLS", "source_url": null, "statement": "Atlantic County unemployment improved to 4.8% in September 2026"}, {"source_name": "Bureau of Labor Statistics", "source_url": null, "statement": "Leisure and hospitality sector lost 1,400 jobs, 2.3% year-over-year"}, {"source_name": "Bureau of Labor Statistics", "source_url": null, "statement": "AtlantiCare completed $75 million expansion in May 2025, driving health sector job growth"}, {"source_name": "New Jersey labor market research notes", "source_url": null, "statement": "NJ tech sector forecast to grow 1.4% in 2026, adding 4,305 jobs"}, {"source_name": "Layoff Atlas / NJ WARN registry", "source_url": null, "statement": "NJ WARN filings on pace for heaviest year since 2020, led by Prudential and JPMorgan Chase"}, {"source_name": "Tech layoff tracking aggregator", "source_url": null, "statement": "133,417 tech employees laid off nationally at 325 companies through Oct 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.", "edition_label": "November 2026", "files": {"html": "atlantic-city-nj-msa/information-technology/2026-10.html", "pdf": "atlantic-city-nj-msa/information-technology/2026-10.pdf"}, "published_at": "2026-11-03T08:18:09.205969+00:00", "report_html_url": "https://reports.wagescape.com/archive/v1/editions/atlantic-city-nj-msa/information-technology/2026-10.html", "report_pdf_url": "https://reports.wagescape.com/archive/v1/editions/atlantic-city-nj-msa/information-technology/2026-10.pdf"}