{"schema_version": 1, "id": "columbus-oh-msa/information-technology/2026-10", "product": "Labor Market Pulse", "metro": {"geography_id": 141, "label": "Columbus, OH MSA", "slug": "columbus-oh-msa"}, "focus_area": {"key": "information_technology", "slug": "information-technology", "label": "Information Technology"}, "period": "2026-10", "public_after": "2026-10-01", "frozen_at": "2026-11-03T03:01:45.994639+00:00", "headline": "Columbus IT labor market tightens as construction crowds out tech wages.", "headline_summary": "Columbus unemployment sits at 3.1%, tighter than Ohio's 3.4% and the national 4.1%, while Systems Administrator pay locally ($95,716) continues trailing the national median ($102,503) amid a construction-driven wage squeeze.", "key_indicators": [{"label": "Columbus MSA unemployment", "value": "3.1%", "context": "vs 3.4% Ohio, 4.1% national"}, {"label": "Franklin County wage growth", "value": "4.7% YoY", "context": "Q1 2026, outpaces metro average wage"}, {"label": "Construction employment growth", "value": "16.1% YoY", "context": "vs -4.3% professional/business services"}, {"label": "Ohio technician job-to-candidate ratio", "value": "5 to 1", "context": "Statewide, per JobsOhio program data"}], "takeaways": [{"headline": "Columbus runs tighter than the state and nation combined.", "body": "The metro's 3.1% unemployment rate sits below Ohio's 3.4% and well under the national 4.1%, suggesting Columbus employers face a shallower local talent pool even as national conditions soften. Recruiting assumptions built on national benchmarks may understate the premium required to fill infrastructure and technician roles locally."}, {"headline": "Construction's boom is pulling wages up in surrounding roles too.", "body": "Construction employment grew 16.1% year-over-year in the metro, and Franklin County wages rose 4.7% overall \u2014 a pace that likely reflects competition for skilled trades and technician labor bleeding into adjacent infrastructure and data center roles. Systems Administrator pay locally ($95,716) still trails the national median ($102,503), which may reflect this crowding-out effect."}, {"headline": "Professional services contraction could ease some talent pressure.", "body": "Professional and business services employment fell 4.3% in the metro even as overall unemployment stayed low, consistent with national data showing IT project manager and cybersecurity analyst pay holding flat locally. IT leaders hiring for governance, PM, or analyst functions may find more available candidates than the headline unemployment rate suggests."}, {"headline": "State subsidy dollars are a build lever.", "body": "JobsOhio's Technician Path program offers up to $10,000 per worker for training, but requires 1:1 employer matching and applies only to internal development. Organizations weighing build-versus-buy for infrastructure headcount should factor this into total cost comparisons against outsourcing or contract staffing."}], "local_conditions": "Columbus MSA unemployment held at 3.1% in September, tighter than both the Ohio rate of 3.4% and the national 4.1%, as data center buildout and construction activity (up 16.1% year-over-year) absorb labor supply even as professional and business services contracted 4.3%. Franklin County average weekly wages rose 4.7% year-over-year, outpacing the metro's broader $1,537 average weekly wage and signaling that demand is concentrated in a narrow band of infrastructure-adjacent occupations.", "implications": "Tight local labor supply combined with Ohio's reported ratio of five open technician jobs per qualified candidate means infrastructure and data center-adjacent roles face sustained upward wage pressure independent of national IT trends, while white-collar IT functions tracking the national professional-services pullback may see softer urgency. This divergence argues for differentiated headcount strategy: competing directly on pay for scarce technician and infrastructure talent while leaning on JobsOhio's Technician Path subsidy (up to $10,000 per worker, with 1:1 employer matching) to build internal pipelines and reduce reliance on bidding against data center employers in the open market. Consider evaluating which infrastructure roles justify external market-rate competition versus which are better served by internal upskilling funded through state workforce programs.", "looking_ahead": [{"category": "Early indicator", "body": "Central Ohio lost jobs in three of six months through June, a net -0.1% change, even as unemployment stayed low. Watch whether this momentum loss broadens into IT-adjacent sectors or remains isolated to professional services."}, {"category": "Potential inflection point", "body": "TechCred credential reimbursements have already exhausted their fiscal-year budget statewide. IT leaders relying on subsidized upskilling for infrastructure or security staff should expect to fund credentialing internally through at least the next budget cycle."}, {"category": "Worth watching", "body": "Data center job ads, a signal of hiring demand (one ad often covers several openings), grew 20% nationally over three months, and Columbus is a named growth market for this activity. Track whether local advertised pay for network engineers and systems administrators begins to diverge further from national medians as competition intensifies."}, {"category": "Emerging pressure point", "body": "National tech layoffs have already exceeded 133,000 workers year-to-date through late October, concentrated in large tech hubs, with secondary markets like Columbus largely unaffected so far. Monitor whether any of that displaced talent \u2014 particularly cloud and software talent \u2014 begins surfacing in the local candidate pool."}], "roles": [{"role": "Data Scientist", "data_scope": "metro", "metro_p25": 121971.5, "metro_p50": 147927.8, "metro_p75": 160424.0, "metro_trend_direction": "up", "metro_trend_magnitude": "moderate", "national_p50": 145881.0, "national_trend_direction": "stable", "national_trend_magnitude": "stable"}, {"role": "Systems Administrator", "data_scope": "metro", "metro_p25": 76965.5, "metro_p50": 95715.8, "metro_p75": 104983.75, "metro_trend_direction": "up", "metro_trend_magnitude": "moderate", "national_p50": 102503.0, "national_trend_direction": "up", "national_trend_magnitude": "moderate"}, {"role": "Network Engineer", "data_scope": "metro", "metro_p25": 77001.0, "metro_p50": 111469.0, "metro_p75": 128445.0, "metro_trend_direction": "up", "metro_trend_magnitude": "moderate", "national_p50": 115757.0, "national_trend_direction": "up", "national_trend_magnitude": "moderate"}, {"role": "Software Engineer", "data_scope": "metro", "metro_p25": 121543.0, "metro_p50": 156463.0, "metro_p75": 172500.0, "metro_trend_direction": "stable", "metro_trend_magnitude": "stable", "national_p50": 154403.0, "national_trend_direction": "stable", "national_trend_magnitude": "stable"}, {"role": "Help Desk/IT Support Specialist", "data_scope": "metro", "metro_p25": 41052.5, "metro_p50": 49333.0, "metro_p75": 54988.5, "metro_trend_direction": "stable", "metro_trend_magnitude": "stable", "national_p50": 53129.0, "national_trend_direction": "down", "national_trend_magnitude": "moderate"}, {"role": "Cybersecurity Analyst", "data_scope": "metro", "metro_p25": 83454.0, "metro_p50": 102700.0, "metro_p75": 123575.0, "metro_trend_direction": "stable", "metro_trend_magnitude": "stable", "national_p50": 107327.0, "national_trend_direction": "up", "national_trend_magnitude": "moderate"}, {"role": "IT Project Manager", "data_scope": "metro", "metro_p25": 88334.5, "metro_p50": 111993.0, "metro_p75": 125810.5, "metro_trend_direction": "stable", "metro_trend_magnitude": "stable", "national_p50": 118149.8, "national_trend_direction": "stable", "national_trend_magnitude": "stable"}], "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": "November 2026", "files": {"html": "columbus-oh-msa/information-technology/2026-10.html", "pdf": "columbus-oh-msa/information-technology/2026-10.pdf"}, "published_at": "2026-11-03T08:20:27.855329+00:00", "report_html_url": "https://reports.wagescape.com/archive/v1/editions/columbus-oh-msa/information-technology/2026-10.html", "report_pdf_url": "https://reports.wagescape.com/archive/v1/editions/columbus-oh-msa/information-technology/2026-10.pdf"}