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Labor Market Pulse
Cheyenne, WY Metro Edition
Focus: IT
Cheyenne's cybersecurity pay falls as network engineering pay climbs.
$88,369
Cybersecurity Analyst pay (metro)
Down significantly vs $106,790 national, up moderately
$136,097
Network Engineer pay (metro)
Up significantly, above $114,400 national median
2.6%-2.7%
Laramie County unemployment
Well below 4.1% U.S. rate, July/June 2026
2.1%
Wyoming quits rate
Decade low, signals reduced job mobility
This Month's Takeaways
Cheyenne's cybersecurity pay gap signals a buy, not build, moment.
Metro Cybersecurity Analyst pay dropped significantly to $88,369 against a rising $106,790 national figure — a 17% gap that widens monthly. Organizations unable to close that gap through direct hire should weigh managed security services before vacancies compound risk exposure.
Network Engineer demand looks like the real local growth story.
Metro pay rose significantly to $136,097, actually outpacing the $114,400 national median. This tracks with state-level signals pointing to isolated infrastructure build-outs and suggests this role, not cybersecurity, is where Cheyenne employers are actively competing.
A 2.1% statewide quits rate masks a flight risk, not loyalty.
Decade-low quits alongside falling information-sector employment is consistent with workers staying because local options are thin, not because they are satisfied. Retention metrics built on tenure alone may be missing building pressure that surfaces once remote or regional opportunities expand.
Software Engineer pay strength doesn't mean broad IT health.
Metro Software Engineer pay rose moderately to $166,191, well above the $153,652 national figure, but this sits against a county-wide information-sector employment decline. Treat this as a narrow, high-skill outlier rather than evidence of a generally strengthening local tech labor market.
Local Labor Conditions
Laramie County's unemployment rate held near multi-year lows at 2.6%-2.7% through mid-2026, but the county's information sector shed jobs year-over-year even as overall nonfarm employment softened by 300 positions in April — a sign of narrow, sector-specific contraction rather than broad distress. Wyoming's statewide quits rate fell to a decade-low 2.1%, consistent with a Cheyenne IT workforce that appears more trapped than loyal, constrained by limited local alternatives rather than genuine retention strength.
Leadership & Talent Implications
Cybersecurity Analyst advertised pay in Cheyenne fell sharply to $88,369 even as the national figure climbed to $106,790 — a divergence that suggests local employers are either losing pricing power for security talent or quietly shifting security work to contractors and managed service providers rather than competing on direct hire compensation. Network Engineer and Software Engineer pay, by contrast, posted significant local gains, pointing to concentrated demand in infrastructure and build-side roles that may reflect data center and nuclear-adjacent project activity (TerraPower) rather than broad-based IT expansion. Current conditions suggest reviewing whether cybersecurity functions are better retained through outsourced or managed arrangements while reserving direct-hire investment for infrastructure and engineering roles showing genuine local wage momentum.
