{"schema_version": 1, "id": "augusta-richmond-county-ga-sc-msa/information-technology/2026-09", "product": "Labor Market Pulse", "metro": {"geography_id": 50, "label": "Augusta-Richmond County, GA-SC MSA", "slug": "augusta-richmond-county-ga-sc-msa"}, "focus_area": {"key": "information_technology", "slug": "information-technology", "label": "Information Technology"}, "period": "2026-09", "public_after": "2026-09-01", "frozen_at": "2026-10-09T13:13:40.389953+00:00", "headline": "Augusta IT pay splits: admins gain, security and networking fall behind.", "headline_summary": "Systems Administrator pay rose to $98,454 locally while Cybersecurity Analyst pay fell to $89,635, a widening gap against the national $106,790 median that signals rising retention risk.", "key_indicators": [{"label": "Metro unemployment rate", "value": "4.0%", "context": "vs 3.2% Georgia statewide, July 2026"}, {"label": "Georgia IT job postings", "value": "-28.1% YoY", "context": "Through July 2026, signals hiring pullback"}, {"label": "Cybersecurity Analyst pay gap", "value": "$17,155", "context": "Metro $89,635 vs national $106,790"}, {"label": "Atlanta Fed wage growth tracker", "value": "4.1%", "context": "Up from 3.8% prior month, August 2026"}], "takeaways": [{"headline": "Augusta's cybersecurity pay gap is widening, not narrowing.", "body": "Local Cybersecurity Analyst advertised pay fell to $89,635 while the national median climbed to $106,790 \u2014 a roughly $17K gap. Supply-constrained demand nationally means Augusta employers may be training talent that becomes a flight risk once remote offers surface."}, {"headline": "Systems Administrator pay is bucking the metro's downward drift.", "body": "Advertised pay rose significantly to $98,454, nearly matching the national median of $101,168 \u2014 unusual given declines across Network Engineer and Cybersecurity Analyst roles locally. This may reflect employers consolidating infrastructure support work onto fewer, better-paid generalists as commodity roles get automated or outsourced."}, {"headline": "Falling IT postings don't mean falling pressure on existing staff.", "body": "Georgia IT job postings dropped 28.1% year-over-year even as statewide unemployment hit a two-and-a-half-year low of 3.2%. Fewer open requisitions paired with tight overall labor supply suggests internal teams are absorbing workload without proportional headcount growth."}, {"headline": "Network Engineer compensation is drifting the wrong direction locally.", "body": "Metro advertised pay fell moderately to $102,677 against a rising national median of $114,400, now an $11.7K spread. Given Georgia's data center buildout concentrated in Atlanta, Augusta risks losing networking talent to higher-paying regional opportunities just two hours up I-20."}], "local_conditions": "Augusta-Richmond metro unemployment held at 4.0% in July, running roughly a point above Georgia's 3.2% statewide rate, even as the state posted record labor force and employment levels and the Atlanta Fed's wage growth tracker climbed to 4.1%. Locally, that gap appears to reflect Augusta's heavier concentration in federal and manufacturing employment, sectors facing national WARN activity and a 28.1% year-over-year drop in Georgia IT and programming postings that signals employers are pulling back on net-new technical hiring.", "implications": "Cooling local IT postings alongside tighter statewide labor supply creates a retention-first environment rather than a hiring-first one \u2014 Augusta IT leaders are more likely to be defending incumbent cybersecurity and cloud talent than competing for new hires. With advertised pay for Cybersecurity Analyst and Network Engineer both declining locally even as national rates rise, the metro risks quiet attrition to remote or relocated roles paying national rates. Consider reviewing retention compensation for security and infrastructure staff against national advertised rates rather than local medians, particularly where remote work makes out-of-market offers realistic.", "looking_ahead": [{"category": "Early indicator", "body": "Watch whether Georgia's 28.1% IT posting decline continues into Q4 or stabilizes \u2014 a sustained drop would support deeper reliance on contract staffing over permanent headcount for commodity infrastructure work."}, {"category": "Emerging pressure point", "body": "Augusta's unemployment-rate gap versus the state (4.0% vs 3.2%) bears monitoring for signs of local federal or manufacturing sector softness spilling into IT contractor and support staffing pools."}, {"category": "Worth watching", "body": "Nearshore Latin American staffing at 30-50% cost savings is gaining traction nationally for senior engineering roles; Augusta's widening local-to-national pay gaps in networking and security make this tradeoff increasingly relevant for build-vs-buy decisions."}, {"category": "Potential inflection point", "body": "September's official MSA unemployment data won't post until November \u2014 leaders should treat current 4.0% readings as a floor estimate and revisit headcount plans once confirmed figures arrive."}], "roles": [{"role": "Data Scientist", "data_scope": "metro", "metro_p25": 83839.0, "metro_p50": 112498.0, "metro_p75": 127235.0, "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": "metro", "metro_p25": 79091.0, "metro_p50": 98454.4, "metro_p75": 105000.0, "metro_trend_direction": "up", "metro_trend_magnitude": "significant", "national_p50": 101168.0, "national_trend_direction": "up", "national_trend_magnitude": "moderate"}, {"role": "Network Engineer", "data_scope": "metro", "metro_p25": 76846.5, "metro_p50": 102677.0, "metro_p75": 119204.75, "metro_trend_direction": "down", "metro_trend_magnitude": "moderate", "national_p50": 114400.0, "national_trend_direction": "up", "national_trend_magnitude": "moderate"}, {"role": "Software Engineer", "data_scope": "metro", "metro_p25": 101220.0, "metro_p50": 141028.6, "metro_p75": 156000.0, "metro_trend_direction": "up", "metro_trend_magnitude": "moderate", "national_p50": 153652.0, "national_trend_direction": "stable", "national_trend_magnitude": "stable"}, {"role": "Help Desk/IT Support Specialist", "data_scope": "metro", "metro_p25": 41587.0, "metro_p50": 51631.0, "metro_p75": 53370.0, "metro_trend_direction": "down", "metro_trend_magnitude": "moderate", "national_p50": 53644.0, "national_trend_direction": "stable", "national_trend_magnitude": "stable"}, {"role": "Cybersecurity Analyst", "data_scope": "metro", "metro_p25": 69209.5, "metro_p50": 89635.0, "metro_p75": 91966.5, "metro_trend_direction": "down", "metro_trend_magnitude": "moderate", "national_p50": 106790.0, "national_trend_direction": "up", "national_trend_magnitude": "moderate"}, {"role": "IT Project Manager", "data_scope": "metro", "metro_p25": 86858.75, "metro_p50": 107585.0, "metro_p75": 108820.25, "metro_trend_direction": "stable", "metro_trend_magnitude": "stable", "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": "augusta-richmond-county-ga-sc-msa/information-technology/2026-09.html", "pdf": "augusta-richmond-county-ga-sc-msa/information-technology/2026-09.pdf"}, "published_at": "2026-10-09T13:48:17.637492+00:00", "report_html_url": "https://reports.wagescape.com/archive/v1/editions/augusta-richmond-county-ga-sc-msa/information-technology/2026-09.html", "report_pdf_url": "https://reports.wagescape.com/archive/v1/editions/augusta-richmond-county-ga-sc-msa/information-technology/2026-09.pdf"}