{"schema_version": 1, "id": "danville-il-msa/information-technology/2026-09", "product": "Labor Market Pulse", "metro": {"geography_id": 183, "label": "Danville, IL MSA", "slug": "danville-il-msa"}, "focus_area": {"key": "information_technology", "slug": "information-technology", "label": "Information Technology"}, "period": "2026-09", "public_after": "2026-09-01", "frozen_at": "2026-10-09T13:14:52.182271+00:00", "headline": "Danville's job losses are industrial, not technical \u2014 the IT talent gap widens anyway.", "headline_summary": "Vermilion County unemployment climbed to 6.3% on plant closures while local Professional-Business Services payrolls fell 175 jobs even as Illinois tech hiring grew 11% month-over-month.", "key_indicators": [{"label": "Vermilion County unemployment (NSA)", "value": "6.3%", "context": "Up from 5.3% year earlier, March 2026"}, {"label": "Professional-Business Services payrolls", "value": "-175 jobs YoY", "context": "Vermilion County, against +200 total nonfarm jobs"}, {"label": "Illinois tech hiring growth", "value": "+11% MoM", "context": "August 2026, statewide \u2014 outpacing metro trend"}, {"label": "Chicago IT base salary average", "value": "$135,456", "context": "vs Danville Systems Admin median $93,256"}], "takeaways": [{"headline": "Local layoffs are not generating IT talent relief.", "body": "Hyster-Yale and BFG Supply cuts are concentrated in distribution and manufacturing operations, not professional or technical staff, so IT leaders shouldn't expect these closures to meaningfully deepen the local systems or security candidate pool."}, {"headline": "Professional-Business Services contraction is the real signal to watch.", "body": "A 175-job year-over-year decline in this category \u2014 the closest local proxy for IT and technical employment \u2014 suggests Danville's technical labor market is shrinking even as Illinois's broader tech hiring accelerates, widening the gap between local supply and specialized demand."}, {"headline": "Support and admin roles face continuing demand compression.", "body": "Metro Systems Administrator advertised pay rose to $93,256, trailing the national median of $101,168, consistent with national data showing traditional IT operations roles under structural pressure as organizations reallocate budget toward cloud and security specialists."}, {"headline": "Chicago's AI and cybersecurity premium is pulling at Danville's edges.", "body": "Mid-level cybersecurity roles are seeing 10-15% salary increases statewide and Chicago IT base pay averages $135,456 \u2014 a gap wide enough that Danville employers retaining any cloud or security talent should expect sustained counter-offer pressure from the Chicago metro."}], "local_conditions": "Danville MSA labor conditions remain structurally strained as the Hyster-Yale relocation (roughly 220 jobs) and smaller closures at BFG Supply and McLane Midwest compound a local unemployment picture that swung from 5.3% to 6.3% year-over-year in March on a not-seasonally-adjusted basis. Professional-Business Services payrolls, the category most likely to house IT and technical roles, already declined by 175 jobs locally even as statewide tech hiring grew 11% month-over-month in August \u2014 signaling a metro increasingly disconnected from Illinois's broader tech demand surge.", "implications": "A shrinking local professional-services base alongside a tightening statewide market for cybersecurity and cloud talent means Danville-based IT leaders compete for scarce specialized skills against Chicago-area employers offering materially higher pay and deeper candidate pools. With manufacturing-linked employer contractions freeing up general technical labor locally but specialized cloud, security, and AI-adjacent talent remaining nationally scarce, build-vs-buy decisions favor retaining a lean core of senior specialists while shifting commodity infrastructure and support work to contract or remote-sourced staffing. Consider evaluating whether displaced technical workers from Hyster-Yale and McLane's broader operations present a near-term opportunity to backfill systems administration or support roles at favorable advertised rates, rather than competing head-on for scarce cloud and security specialists.", "looking_ahead": [{"category": "Worth watching", "body": "Track whether workers displaced from Hyster-Yale's wind-down (complete by year-end) include any technical, logistics-systems, or IT support staff entering the Vermilion County candidate pool through Q4."}, {"category": "Emerging pressure point", "body": "Illinois's new salary range disclosure requirement removes wage-negotiation flexibility statewide; Danville employers posting IT roles should expect candidates to benchmark local offers directly against Chicago-area postings for the first time with full transparency."}, {"category": "Potential inflection point", "body": "If Professional-Business Services payrolls continue declining locally while statewide tech postings grow, the metro's technical labor pool could tighten further even amid elevated headline unemployment \u2014 a signal to lock in retention for any remaining cloud or security staff."}, {"category": "Expected", "body": "National WARN activity remains elevated among large tech employers (Amazon, Meta, Oracle); watch for any secondary relocation of remote or hybrid technical talent into smaller Illinois metros as coastal layoffs continue."}], "roles": [{"role": "Data Scientist", "data_scope": "state_rollup", "metro_p25": 113377.0, "metro_p50": 143567.0, "metro_p75": 162000.0, "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": 79260.0, "metro_p50": 93256.2, "metro_p75": 104477.25, "metro_trend_direction": "up", "metro_trend_magnitude": "moderate", "national_p50": 101168.0, "national_trend_direction": "up", "national_trend_magnitude": "moderate"}, {"role": "Network Engineer", "data_scope": "state_rollup", "metro_p25": 74964.0, "metro_p50": 107600.0, "metro_p75": 128306.0, "metro_trend_direction": "up", "metro_trend_magnitude": "moderate", "national_p50": 114400.0, "national_trend_direction": "up", "national_trend_magnitude": "moderate"}, {"role": "Software Engineer", "data_scope": "state_rollup", "metro_p25": 112123.0, "metro_p50": 151902.4, "metro_p75": 166866.0, "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": 42645.0, "metro_p50": 46279.8, "metro_p75": 59448.25, "metro_trend_direction": "up", "metro_trend_magnitude": "moderate", "national_p50": 53644.0, "national_trend_direction": "stable", "national_trend_magnitude": "stable"}, {"role": "Cybersecurity Analyst", "data_scope": "state_rollup", "metro_p25": 87500.0, "metro_p50": 102197.0, "metro_p75": 118050.0, "metro_trend_direction": "up", "metro_trend_magnitude": "moderate", "national_p50": 106790.0, "national_trend_direction": "up", "national_trend_magnitude": "moderate"}, {"role": "IT Project Manager", "data_scope": "state_rollup", "metro_p25": 85061.5, "metro_p50": 119185.8, "metro_p75": 130019.0, "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": "danville-il-msa/information-technology/2026-09.html", "pdf": "danville-il-msa/information-technology/2026-09.pdf"}, "published_at": "2026-10-09T14:31:00.014537+00:00", "report_html_url": "https://reports.wagescape.com/archive/v1/editions/danville-il-msa/information-technology/2026-09.html", "report_pdf_url": "https://reports.wagescape.com/archive/v1/editions/danville-il-msa/information-technology/2026-09.pdf"}