{"schema_version": 1, "id": "danville-il-msa/information-technology/2026-10", "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": "2026-10", "public_after": "2026-10-01", "frozen_at": "2026-11-03T03:05:04.872471+00:00", "headline": "Danville's IT talent pool shrinks as security pay climbs.", "headline_summary": "Metro unemployment fell to 4.5% even as 400 non-farm jobs disappeared year-over-year, while Cybersecurity Analyst pay rose to $102,380 and local IT Support pay dropped to $44,579 \u2014 nearly $8,500 below the national median.", "key_indicators": [{"label": "Danville unemployment rate", "value": "4.5%", "context": "Down from 5.5% a year ago (Sept 2025)"}, {"label": "Non-farm employment change", "value": "-400 jobs", "context": "Year-over-year, despite falling unemployment rate"}, {"label": "IT Support pay gap vs. national", "value": "$44,579 vs $53,129", "context": "Metro trending down significantly, national down moderate"}, {"label": "National tech layoffs (YTD)", "value": "133,417", "context": "Already exceeds full-year 2025 total"}], "takeaways": [{"headline": "Support-role pay gap is wide enough to drive quiet attrition.", "body": "Metro Help Desk/IT Support advertised pay sits roughly $8,500 below the national median and is trending down significantly, while 41% of technologists nationally say they would trade salary for remote flexibility. Danville employers anchored to office-based support models may be financing their own turnover."}, {"headline": "Cybersecurity and systems admin pay are climbing while most roles sit flat.", "body": "Cybersecurity Analyst ($102,380) and Systems Administrator ($93,859) advertised pay both moved up moderately this month, consistent with national security-hiring pressure from fintech and compliance-heavy sectors. Flat movement elsewhere suggests employers are concentrating scarce budget on security and operations ahead of broad-based increases."}, {"headline": "Local employment decline is concentrated in the roles IT depends on.", "body": "Professional-Business Services lost 225 jobs and manufacturing lost 150 locally year-over-year, trimming the adjacent talent and client base that typically supports in-house IT teams and MSPs. Shrinking local demand may make build-vs-buy decisions lean further toward regional or national IT service providers over metro-based hires."}, {"headline": "National tech layoffs create a sourcing opportunity alongside a risk signal.", "body": "133,417 tech layoffs nationally through October 21 already exceed all of 2025, concentrated in large tech hubs, with secondary markets like Danville largely insulated so far. Organizations here may find a rare window to recruit displaced infrastructure and security talent willing to relocate or work remote at below-peak-market rates."}], "local_conditions": "Vermilion County unemployment fell to 4.5% in September, a full point below year-ago levels, yet total non-farm employment still dropped by 400 jobs year-over-year as Professional-Business Services shed 225 positions and manufacturing lost 150 \u2014 a metro where headline improvement masks continued erosion in white-collar and production roles. National data showing information-sector hiring at just 1.6% of employment and tech layoffs already exceeding all of 2025 (133,417 through October 21) compound the signal: Danville employers compete for a shrinking pool of specialized IT talent while losing adjacent professional-services headcount that historically fed local tech pipelines.", "implications": "Thin local IT talent supply combined with national wage premiums of 4.7% for IT systems roles versus 2.4% overall growth means Danville organizations likely need regional or national sourcing to fill infrastructure, security, or support vacancies at competitive cost. Metro Help Desk/IT Support pay sits at $44,579 against a national median of $53,129 \u2014 a gap wide enough to invite attrition toward remote or regional employers now that 41% of technologists say they would trade salary for flexibility. Consider reviewing retention risk on support and entry-level infrastructure roles where the local-to-national pay gap is widest, and evaluate whether hybrid or remote arrangements can close that gap without full base-pay parity.", "looking_ahead": [{"category": "Early indicator", "body": "Watch whether Danville's improving headline unemployment rate (4.5%) converges with or diverges from continued non-farm job losses over the next two IDES releases. A widening gap would confirm the labor market is tightening on supply while demand stays soft."}, {"category": "Worth watching", "body": "Track whether displaced professional-services and manufacturing workers locally show any crossover into IT support or operations roles, similar to the statewide skill-mismatch pattern IDES has flagged (Illinois ranks 47th in job opportunities per capita)."}, {"category": "Emerging pressure point", "body": "National data center job postings are up 20% in three months and 147% above June 2024 levels. If that buildout reaches downstate Illinois infrastructure investment, expect localized competition for networking and systems talent that Danville employers have not faced before."}, {"category": "Potential inflection point", "body": "Illinois' information sector carries the state's highest average weekly wage at $2,057 \u2014 a benchmark likely to pull ambitious local IT talent toward Chicago-metro remote roles. Watch whether advertised pay for metro Network Engineer and Systems Administrator roles needs to move to hold against that pull."}], "roles": [{"role": "Data Scientist", "data_scope": "state_rollup", "metro_p25": 112735.0, "metro_p50": 140071.0, "metro_p75": 160363.25, "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": 79564.25, "metro_p50": 93859.0, "metro_p75": 105000.0, "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": "state_rollup", "metro_p25": 75379.75, "metro_p50": 107600.0, "metro_p75": 129924.0, "metro_trend_direction": "stable", "metro_trend_magnitude": "stable", "national_p50": 115757.0, "national_trend_direction": "up", "national_trend_magnitude": "moderate"}, {"role": "Software Engineer", "data_scope": "state_rollup", "metro_p25": 112375.0, "metro_p50": 151889.0, "metro_p75": 166849.75, "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": "metro", "metro_p25": 42645.0, "metro_p50": 44579.0, "metro_p75": 45789.75, "metro_trend_direction": "down", "metro_trend_magnitude": "significant", "national_p50": 53129.0, "national_trend_direction": "down", "national_trend_magnitude": "moderate"}, {"role": "Cybersecurity Analyst", "data_scope": "state_rollup", "metro_p25": 87544.0, "metro_p50": 102380.0, "metro_p75": 117382.0, "metro_trend_direction": "up", "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": 86552.25, "metro_p50": 120339.0, "metro_p75": 130019.0, "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": "Illinois Department of Employment Security", "source_url": null, "statement": "Vermilion County unemployment at 4.5% in Sept, down from 5.5% year-ago"}, {"source_name": "Vermilion County First / IDES", "source_url": null, "statement": "Non-farm employment dropped 400 jobs year-over-year in Danville MSA"}, {"source_name": "Indeed Hiring Lab", "source_url": null, "statement": "IT systems & solutions advertised wages up 4.7% year-over-year nationally"}, {"source_name": "Industry survey (pre-researched national IT context)", "source_url": null, "statement": "41% of technologists would trade salary for remote flexibility"}, {"source_name": "Layoffs tracking data (pre-researched national context)", "source_url": null, "statement": "133,417 tech layoffs at 325 companies through Oct 21, 2026"}, {"source_name": "Indeed", "source_url": null, "statement": "Data center job postings up 20% in three months, 147% above June 2024"}], "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": "danville-il-msa/information-technology/2026-10.html", "pdf": "danville-il-msa/information-technology/2026-10.pdf"}, "published_at": "2026-11-03T08:20:42.992114+00:00", "report_html_url": "https://reports.wagescape.com/archive/v1/editions/danville-il-msa/information-technology/2026-10.html", "report_pdf_url": "https://reports.wagescape.com/archive/v1/editions/danville-il-msa/information-technology/2026-10.pdf"}