{"schema_version": 1, "id": "dalton-ga-msa/information-technology/2026-10", "product": "Labor Market Pulse", "metro": {"geography_id": 175, "label": "Dalton, GA MSA", "slug": "dalton-ga-msa"}, "focus_area": {"key": "information_technology", "slug": "information-technology", "label": "Information Technology"}, "period": "2026-10", "public_after": "2026-10-01", "frozen_at": "2026-11-03T03:04:11.680496+00:00", "headline": "Dalton's security pay slips as national rates climb.", "headline_summary": "Metro Cybersecurity Analyst pay fell to $95,964 while the national figure rose to $107,327, even as Dalton's unemployment ticked up to 3.6% on record labor force growth.", "key_indicators": [{"label": "Dalton MSA unemployment rate", "value": "3.6%", "context": "Up from 3.7% year-ago; national rate 4.1%"}, {"label": "Whitfield County avg weekly wage", "value": "$1,065", "context": "vs. $1,459 national average"}, {"label": "Cybersecurity Analyst pay divergence", "value": "-$11,363 gap", "context": "Metro $95,964 (down) vs. national $107,327 (up)"}, {"label": "Dalton MSA job count", "value": "66,200 jobs", "context": "Labor force 66,721, up 1,168 month-over-month"}], "takeaways": [{"headline": "Cybersecurity pay is moving the wrong direction locally.", "body": "Metro Cybersecurity Analyst pay fell moderately to $95,964 while the national figure rose to $107,327 \u2014 a $11,000+ gap opening in a single month. Remote-capable security talent in Dalton has every incentive to look outward, and retention plans built on local comparables will understate the risk."}, {"headline": "Help desk wage erosion tracks a national pattern.", "body": "Metro and national Help Desk/IT Support pay both declined this month (down moderate), suggesting softening demand for entry-level support roles broadly. This may create room to shift junior support capacity toward offshore or BPO arrangements given Georgia's established ~46,000-worker BPO base."}, {"headline": "Network Engineer is the one role gaining ground locally.", "body": "Metro Network Engineer pay rose moderately to $111,906, nearly closing the gap with the $115,757 national figure \u2014 a signal that infrastructure buildout tied to data center and manufacturing automation investment may be driving real local demand. Worth testing whether current postings for this role draw faster response than flat-pay roles like Systems Administrator."}, {"headline": "Low metro wages cushion cost but not candidate expectations.", "body": "Whitfield County's $1,065 average weekly wage sits well below the $1,459 national figure, giving IT leaders a cost advantage for site-based infrastructure and support roles. That advantage erodes quickly for any role with remote flexibility, where candidates benchmark against national pay."}], "local_conditions": "Dalton MSA unemployment ticked up to 3.6% in September even as labor force and employment both hit multi-month highs, a pattern consistent with workers entering the market faster than employers absorb them. Whitfield County's average weekly wage of $1,065 remains far below the national $1,459, keeping the metro's carpet-and-manufacturing economic base a structurally low-wage environment that shapes the ceiling local employers can offer for IT talent competing against remote-eligible national postings.", "implications": "Local advertised pay for Network Engineer ($111,906, up moderately) and flat-to-stable figures for Systems Administrator, Software Engineer and IT Project Manager suggest Dalton employers are not yet repricing core infrastructure roles despite national wage gains of 4.7% in IT systems and solutions \u2014 a gap that widens retention risk as remote work lets local talent benchmark against metros paying significantly more. Cybersecurity Analyst pay falling locally while rising nationally (down moderate vs. up moderate) is the sharpest divergence in this month's data and warrants scrutiny given Georgia's broader IT salary stratification around AI and security skills. Consider reviewing whether security and infrastructure compensation bands reflect national mobility pressure before the next hiring cycle.", "looking_ahead": [{"category": "Emerging pressure point", "body": "Cybersecurity Analyst pay diverging from the national trend this month could compound if Georgia's broader AI-driven wage stratification spreads into adjacent security roles. Watch whether Dalton's advertised pay for this role continues falling while statewide demand for information/communication jobs keeps expanding."}, {"category": "Worth watching", "body": "Georgia's information and communication sector grew employment from 49.8K to 53.0K between Q2 2025 and Q2 2026, concentrated in metro Atlanta. Monitor whether any of that growth or displaced talent (from national tech layoffs exceeding 133,000 through October) filters into the Dalton candidate pool."}, {"category": "Potential inflection point", "body": "Labor force growth outpacing job growth pushed Dalton's unemployment rate up slightly to 3.6% \u2014 a trend that, if it continues, could ease hiring friction for infrastructure and support roles even as skilled technical talent stays scarce. Track whether this loosening extends to IT-adjacent occupations or remains concentrated in manufacturing and logistics."}, {"category": "Expected", "body": "National data center job postings grew 20% in three months while tech hub metros contract hiring, a dynamic that favors lower-cost secondary markets like Dalton for infrastructure headcount. Consider whether this creates near-term opportunity to build on-prem/hybrid infrastructure teams locally, even as Atlanta and national markets compete for cloud-native talent."}], "roles": [{"role": "Data Scientist", "data_scope": "state_rollup", "metro_p25": 114306.0, "metro_p50": 140663.4, "metro_p75": 159523.0, "metro_trend_direction": "stable", "metro_trend_magnitude": "stable", "national_p50": 145881.0, "national_trend_direction": "stable", "national_trend_magnitude": "stable"}, {"role": "Systems Administrator", "data_scope": "state_rollup", "metro_p25": 76062.0, "metro_p50": 92371.8, "metro_p75": 101450.0, "metro_trend_direction": "stable", "metro_trend_magnitude": "stable", "national_p50": 102503.0, "national_trend_direction": "up", "national_trend_magnitude": "moderate"}, {"role": "Network Engineer", "data_scope": "state_rollup", "metro_p25": 72781.0, "metro_p50": 111906.0, "metro_p75": 128707.0, "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": "state_rollup", "metro_p25": 113585.25, "metro_p50": 150217.0, "metro_p75": 163775.75, "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": "state_rollup", "metro_p25": 41450.0, "metro_p50": 49924.0, "metro_p75": 54103.0, "metro_trend_direction": "down", "metro_trend_magnitude": "moderate", "national_p50": 53129.0, "national_trend_direction": "down", "national_trend_magnitude": "moderate"}, {"role": "Cybersecurity Analyst", "data_scope": "state_rollup", "metro_p25": 85498.0, "metro_p50": 95964.0, "metro_p75": 111817.5, "metro_trend_direction": "down", "metro_trend_magnitude": "moderate", "national_p50": 107327.0, "national_trend_direction": "up", "national_trend_magnitude": "moderate"}, {"role": "IT Project Manager", "data_scope": "state_rollup", "metro_p25": 80352.0, "metro_p50": 114441.0, "metro_p75": 128947.0, "metro_trend_direction": "stable", "metro_trend_magnitude": "stable", "national_p50": 118149.8, "national_trend_direction": "stable", "national_trend_magnitude": "stable"}], "industry_snapshot": [], "citations": [{"source_name": "Georgia Department of Labor via Chattanoogan.com", "source_url": null, "statement": "Dalton MSA unemployment rose to 3.6% in September 2026 amid record labor force growth"}, {"source_name": "Dalton Citizen", "source_url": null, "statement": "Whitfield County average weekly wage of $1,065 vs. national $1,459"}, {"source_name": "Georgia Department of Labor", "source_url": null, "statement": "Georgia information/communication employment grew from 49.8K to 53.0K Q2 2025-2026"}, {"source_name": "Layoffs tracking aggregator", "source_url": null, "statement": "133,417 tech employees laid off at 325 companies through October 21, 2026"}, {"source_name": "National labor market research", "source_url": null, "statement": "Data center job postings grew 20% in three months nationally"}, {"source_name": "BLS/national wage tracking", "source_url": null, "statement": "National IT systems and solutions wages up 4.7% year-over-year"}], "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": "dalton-ga-msa/information-technology/2026-10.html", "pdf": "dalton-ga-msa/information-technology/2026-10.pdf"}, "published_at": "2026-11-03T08:20:40.996403+00:00", "report_html_url": "https://reports.wagescape.com/archive/v1/editions/dalton-ga-msa/information-technology/2026-10.html", "report_pdf_url": "https://reports.wagescape.com/archive/v1/editions/dalton-ga-msa/information-technology/2026-10.pdf"}