{"schema_version": 1, "id": "burlington-south-burlington-vt-msa/information-technology/2026-09", "product": "Labor Market Pulse", "metro": {"geography_id": 100, "label": "Burlington-South Burlington, VT MSA", "slug": "burlington-south-burlington-vt-msa"}, "focus_area": {"key": "information_technology", "slug": "information-technology", "label": "Information Technology"}, "period": "2026-09", "public_after": "2026-09-01", "frozen_at": "2026-10-09T13:14:31.221856+00:00", "headline": "Burlington IT pay splits: security and cloud up, infrastructure down.", "headline_summary": "Cybersecurity Analyst pay jumped to $130,412 and Software Engineer pay to $133,349 in Burlington this month, while Systems Administrator pay fell to $94,411 even as Chittenden County unemployment held at a tight 2.3%.", "key_indicators": [{"label": "Chittenden County unemployment", "value": "2.3%", "context": "Tight despite 1.8% YoY employment decline"}, {"label": "Cybersecurity Analyst pay (metro)", "value": "$130,412", "context": "Up significantly, nearing $106,790 national figure"}, {"label": "Systems Administrator pay (metro)", "value": "$94,411", "context": "Down vs $101,168 national, up trend"}, {"label": "Chittenden avg weekly wage", "value": "$1,521", "context": "Up 3.4% YoY, ranks 121st nationally"}], "takeaways": [{"headline": "Cybersecurity pay is pulling ahead of the national benchmark.", "body": "Metro Cybersecurity Analyst pay climbed to $130,412, up significantly and now tracking close to the $106,790 national median rather than trailing it. Local employers appear to be bidding directly against national remote employers for this skill set, not just regional peers."}, {"headline": "Systems Administrator and Network Engineer roles show compensation drift.", "body": "Metro Systems Administrator pay fell to $94,411 while the national figure rose to $101,168, and Network Engineer pay stayed flat locally at $87,961 against a national climb to $114,400. The gap is consistent with Vermont's projected -0.6% decline in Professional/Technical Services employment and suggests these roles are being deprioritized in local budgets."}, {"headline": "Tight labor supply doesn't guarantee hiring pressure everywhere.", "body": "Chittenden County unemployment at 2.3% coexists with a 1.8% year-over-year employment decline, meaning the labor shortage is partly a shrinking labor pool, not surging demand. IT leaders filling commodity roles may find fewer applicants even though overall hiring activity is soft \u2014 a case for weighing contract staffing over permanent hires for support functions."}, {"headline": "Software Engineer pay surge may reflect a shrinking local talent pool.", "body": "Metro Software Engineer pay rose significantly to $133,349, nearly matching the $153,652 national median and outpacing most other local IT roles this month. Combined with Vermont's declining labor force, this looks less like demand growth and more like employers paying up to retain engineers who could otherwise work remotely for higher-paying coastal employers."}], "local_conditions": "Chittenden County's unemployment rate held at a historically tight 2.3% in September even as Q1 2026 employment fell 1.8% year-over-year, placing the county among the worst-performing large U.S. labor markets despite near-full employment. Housing scarcity and a shrinking labor force \u2014 Vermont lost nearly 9,768 workers statewide through May \u2014 are compounding employer difficulty filling specialized technical roles even as overall job counts soften.", "implications": "Shrinking headcount alongside sub-3% unemployment signals a market where employers aren't failing to hire for lack of demand \u2014 they're constrained by labor supply, which changes the calculus on build-vs-buy for infrastructure and support functions. Cybersecurity Analyst pay rose sharply locally (up to $130,412, nearly surpassing the national median) while Systems Administrator and Network Engineer pay softened, suggesting Burlington employers are concentrating scarce compensation budget on security and cloud rather than traditional on-prem roles. Consider reviewing whether flat or declining advertised pay for infrastructure roles reflects genuine demand compression or a widening gap that risks losing remaining on-prem talent to remote cloud-focused employers.", "looking_ahead": [{"category": "Potential inflection point", "body": "UVM Health Network's October layoff impact, following a June WARN notice affecting 142 workers, may release IT support and infrastructure talent into the Burlington market. Watch whether displaced technical staff shift the candidate pool enough to ease pressure on Systems Administrator or Help Desk hiring."}, {"category": "Policy risk", "body": "Vermont's Proposal 3 collective bargaining amendment shows 65% support ahead of the November ballot. Larger IT employers should consider how a pro-union shift could affect compensation structuring and negotiation flexibility for infrastructure and support staff."}, {"category": "Early indicator", "body": "Vermont Tech Hub's $23.7M CHIPS Act-funded training initiative aims to build a 500-person pipeline, but output won't reach the market for 12-18 months. Near-term hiring plans should assume no meaningful pipeline relief before late 2027."}, {"category": "Worth watching", "body": "Housing supply isn't expected to meaningfully increase until 2027-28, continuing to constrain in-migration of mid-career technical talent to Chittenden County. Organizations recruiting outside Vermont for cloud or security roles may need to budget for relocation incentives or lean further into remote arrangements."}], "roles": [{"role": "Data Scientist", "data_scope": "metro", "metro_p25": 96141.5, "metro_p50": 132812.0, "metro_p75": 137116.5, "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": 85000.0, "metro_p50": 94410.8, "metro_p75": 97870.0, "metro_trend_direction": "down", "metro_trend_magnitude": "moderate", "national_p50": 101168.0, "national_trend_direction": "up", "national_trend_magnitude": "moderate"}, {"role": "Network Engineer", "data_scope": "metro", "metro_p25": 80787.0, "metro_p50": 87960.8, "metro_p75": 118125.0, "metro_trend_direction": "stable", "metro_trend_magnitude": "stable", "national_p50": 114400.0, "national_trend_direction": "up", "national_trend_magnitude": "moderate"}, {"role": "Software Engineer", "data_scope": "metro", "metro_p25": 94240.0, "metro_p50": 133349.0, "metro_p75": 147246.0, "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": 43364.0, "metro_p50": 52270.2, "metro_p75": 56495.0, "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": 93250.0, "metro_p50": 130412.0, "metro_p75": 130447.25, "metro_trend_direction": "up", "metro_trend_magnitude": "significant", "national_p50": 106790.0, "national_trend_direction": "up", "national_trend_magnitude": "moderate"}, {"role": "IT Project Manager", "data_scope": "metro", "metro_p25": 89761.5, "metro_p50": 109682.0, "metro_p75": 109683.0, "metro_trend_direction": "up", "metro_trend_magnitude": "significant", "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": "burlington-south-burlington-vt-msa/information-technology/2026-09.html", "pdf": "burlington-south-burlington-vt-msa/information-technology/2026-09.pdf"}, "published_at": "2026-10-09T13:49:01.498416+00:00", "report_html_url": "https://reports.wagescape.com/archive/v1/editions/burlington-south-burlington-vt-msa/information-technology/2026-09.html", "report_pdf_url": "https://reports.wagescape.com/archive/v1/editions/burlington-south-burlington-vt-msa/information-technology/2026-09.pdf"}