{"schema_version": 1, "id": "brunswick-ga-msa/information-technology/2026-09", "product": "Labor Market Pulse", "metro": {"geography_id": 90, "label": "Brunswick, GA MSA", "slug": "brunswick-ga-msa"}, "focus_area": {"key": "information_technology", "slug": "information-technology", "label": "Information Technology"}, "period": "2026-09", "public_after": "2026-09-01", "frozen_at": "2026-10-09T13:14:18.293279+00:00", "headline": "Brunswick's tight labor market masks a widening IT pay gap.", "headline_summary": "Glynn County unemployment sits at 2.70% even as Brunswick's Network Engineer pay ($88,500) trails the national median ($114,400) by more than 20%.", "key_indicators": [{"label": "Glynn County unemployment", "value": "2.70%", "context": "Down from 3.2% in February 2026"}, {"label": "Network Engineer pay gap", "value": "$88,500 vs $114,400", "context": "Metro vs. national median, falling significantly"}, {"label": "Georgia IT postings", "value": "-28.1% YoY", "context": "Through July 2026, statewide demand pullback"}, {"label": "Brunswick MSA job growth", "value": "+3.8% YoY", "context": "48,097 total jobs, Q1 2026"}], "takeaways": [{"headline": "Network Engineer pay gap versus the nation is widening sharply.", "body": "Metro advertised pay for Network Engineers sits at $88,500 against a national median of $114,400 \u2014 a gap exceeding 20% that has moved in the 'significant decline' direction locally while national demand strengthens. Remote-capable engineers in Brunswick have a growing incentive to look outside the metro."}, {"headline": "Help Desk pay erosion signals commodity-tier staffing, not scarcity.", "body": "Advertised pay for Help Desk/IT Support fell significantly to $46,800 locally versus a stable $53,644 nationally, consistent with national signals that AI and automation are compressing demand for lower-tier IT operations roles. This supports shifting entry-level support toward contract or outsourced models rather than permanent backfill."}, {"headline": "Software Engineer pay is the metro's one bright spot.", "body": "Brunswick's $151,646 median for Software Engineers actually exceeds the national figure of $153,652 on a near-parity basis, an unusual result for a non-metro market and likely reflects a small, concentrated pool of specialized employers (Gulfstream, BMW) competing for scarce technical talent locally."}, {"headline": "Statewide IT postings decline doesn't mean local urgency has eased.", "body": "Georgia's 28.1% year-over-year drop in IT job postings reflects demand pullback at the state level, but Glynn County's 2.70% unemployment rate indicates the local labor pool remains extremely thin. Leaders should not read softer statewide postings as license to relax retention efforts for specialized Brunswick-based staff."}], "local_conditions": "Glynn County's unemployment rate sits at a historically low 2.70% as of July 2026, with Brunswick MSA employment up 3.8% year-over-year to 48,097 jobs, driven largely by Professional and Business Services expansion and continued port/logistics activity.  Tight overall labor supply is colliding with a statewide IT hiring slowdown \u2014 Georgia IT and programming postings fell 28.1% year-over-year \u2014 producing a metro environment where general talent scarcity coexists with softer demand for traditional tech roles.", "implications": "Brunswick's tight labor market raises retention stakes across every function, but the statewide pullback in IT postings suggests leaders have room to be more selective about permanent technical hires rather than competing aggressively on every requisition.  Network Engineer advertised pay has fallen significantly locally ($88,500 vs. $114,400 nationally) even as Systems Administrator and Help Desk pay also lag national medians, pointing toward a metro market where infrastructure and support functions are undervalued relative to national peers \u2014 a dynamic that raises flight risk for anyone benchmarking externally.  Consider reviewing infrastructure and support role pay against national medians now, before a tight local labor market combined with national wage gaps accelerates departures to remote or Atlanta-based opportunities.", "looking_ahead": [{"category": "Emerging pressure point", "body": "Watch whether Network Engineer pay continues diverging from the national median; a widening gap in a tight local labor market increases the odds of losing infrastructure talent to remote postings from outside the metro."}, {"category": "Worth watching", "body": "Georgia's data center buildout and Atlanta's rise to the second-largest data center market nationally could begin drawing Brunswick-area infrastructure and security talent northward over the next two months."}, {"category": "Potential inflection point", "body": "Nearshore staffing in Latin America at 30\u201350% cost savings is gaining traction statewide for scarce senior engineering roles \u2014 a model smaller Brunswick employers may test for specialized cloud or security functions rather than competing locally on pay."}, {"category": "Early indicator", "body": "Monitor whether the metro's Help Desk and Systems Administrator pay softness triggers visible attrition; if local postings for these roles increase materially over the next 60 days, it may signal employers underestimated flight risk at the commodity tier."}], "roles": [{"role": "Data Scientist", "data_scope": "state_rollup", "metro_p25": 116032.0, "metro_p50": 143494.6, "metro_p75": 161800.0, "metro_trend_direction": "up", "metro_trend_magnitude": "moderate", "national_p50": 148250.0, "national_trend_direction": "up", "national_trend_magnitude": "moderate"}, {"role": "Systems Administrator", "data_scope": "state_rollup", "metro_p25": 76153.0, "metro_p50": 91356.8, "metro_p75": 101617.0, "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": "metro", "metro_p25": 59827.5, "metro_p50": 88500.0, "metro_p75": 100851.5, "metro_trend_direction": "down", "metro_trend_magnitude": "significant", "national_p50": 114400.0, "national_trend_direction": "up", "national_trend_magnitude": "moderate"}, {"role": "Software Engineer", "data_scope": "state_rollup", "metro_p25": 113828.0, "metro_p50": 151646.0, "metro_p75": 165000.0, "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": 41912.0, "metro_p50": 46800.0, "metro_p75": 46800.0, "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": 85498.0, "metro_p50": 98040.0, "metro_p75": 114543.0, "metro_trend_direction": "stable", "metro_trend_magnitude": "stable", "national_p50": 106790.0, "national_trend_direction": "up", "national_trend_magnitude": "moderate"}, {"role": "IT Project Manager", "data_scope": "state_rollup", "metro_p25": 81309.0, "metro_p50": 114290.0, "metro_p75": 128461.0, "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": "brunswick-ga-msa/information-technology/2026-09.html", "pdf": "brunswick-ga-msa/information-technology/2026-09.pdf"}, "published_at": "2026-10-09T14:30:40.398162+00:00", "report_html_url": "https://reports.wagescape.com/archive/v1/editions/brunswick-ga-msa/information-technology/2026-09.html", "report_pdf_url": "https://reports.wagescape.com/archive/v1/editions/brunswick-ga-msa/information-technology/2026-09.pdf"}