{"schema_version": 1, "id": "elizabethtown-ky-msa/information-technology/2026-09", "product": "Labor Market Pulse", "metro": {"geography_id": 198, "label": "Elizabethtown, KY MSA", "slug": "elizabethtown-ky-msa"}, "focus_area": {"key": "information_technology", "slug": "information-technology", "label": "Information Technology"}, "period": "2026-09", "public_after": "2026-09-01", "frozen_at": "2026-10-09T13:15:03.763408+00:00", "headline": "Security pay converges nationally while help desk pay keeps falling.", "headline_summary": "Elizabethtown Cybersecurity Analyst pay hit $104,500 \u2014 within 2% of the $106,790 national rate \u2014 even as Help Desk pay fell to $51,106 against a flat $53,644 nationally.", "key_indicators": [{"label": "Metro unemployment rate", "value": "4.0%", "context": "Down from 4.9% in Sept 2025; Dec 2025 reading"}, {"label": "Cybersecurity Analyst pay gap", "value": "-2.1%", "context": "$104,500 metro vs $106,790 national median"}, {"label": "Help Desk pay trend", "value": "$51,106", "context": "Down locally; national rate flat at $53,644"}, {"label": "Manufacturing job losses (local closures)", "value": "680 jobs", "context": "Akebono Brake + Fritz Winter, late 2025 WARN filings"}], "takeaways": [{"headline": "Cybersecurity pay is converging with national rates, not lagging.", "body": "Metro Cybersecurity Analyst pay at $104,500 sits within 2% of the $106,790 national median, a rare instance of near-parity for this metro. Treat this as a signal that local employers are matching national urgency around security staffing rather than relying on a regional discount."}, {"headline": "Help desk compression reflects AI pressure, not just local softness.", "body": "Metro Help Desk pay fell to $51,106 while national rates held flat at $53,644 \u2014 a widening gap that lines up with CompTIA and Kentucky Center for Economic Policy signals of AI displacing entry-level, information-based roles. Reallocating support budget toward security or cloud specialization looks more defensible than backfilling these positions at historical rates."}, {"headline": "Manufacturing contraction is reshaping the local IT candidate pool.", "body": "Akebono Brake and Fritz Winter closures removed 680 manufacturing jobs from the MSA, a sector that typically carries its own OT and plant-floor IT/automation staff. Watch whether displaced industrial-IT and controls talent surfaces in the infrastructure or support candidate pool over the next quarter."}, {"headline": "Software Engineer pay gap signals a build-vs-buy inflection point.", "body": "Metro Software Engineer pay at $68,995 trails the $153,652 national median by more than half, a spread wide enough to make local hiring attractive for commodity development work but risky for retaining senior talent against remote-first national offers. Current conditions suggest evaluating hybrid staffing models that pair local junior hires with contracted senior oversight."}], "local_conditions": "Elizabethtown-Fort Knox MSA unemployment tightened to 4.0% by December 2025 from 4.9% in September 2025, even as manufacturing employment slipped from 9.4 thousand to 9.2 thousand amid closures at Akebono Brake (450 jobs) and Fritz Winter North America (230 jobs). Statewide, Kentucky employers are hiring at the slowest pace since the Great Recession, which appears to be compressing the local candidate pool for specialized roles while leaving commodity IT functions exposed to continued softness.", "implications": "Local Cybersecurity Analyst pay climbing to $104,500 against a national median of $106,790 signals Elizabethtown employers are closing the gap on specialized security talent even as manufacturing contraction removes demand elsewhere in the labor market. Meanwhile Help Desk/IT Support pay falling to $51,106 locally, against a stable national rate of $53,644, is consistent with the broader Kentucky pattern of AI-driven compression in lower-tier IT roles \u2014 a dynamic that strengthens the case for outsourcing commodity support functions while reinvesting savings into security and infrastructure retention. Consider reviewing whether current compensation for cybersecurity and network roles tracks the national median closely enough to prevent losses to the $22,000 out-of-state wage gap documented for Kentucky computer science graduates.", "looking_ahead": [{"category": "Worth watching", "body": "Kentucky's statewide unemployment rate held at 4.7% through August while the metro's own rate has been more volatile, swinging from 4.9% to 4.0% across just three months. A clearer September/October MSA reading, once BLS data catches up, will show whether local tightening is durable or a statistical blip tied to manufacturing layoffs working through the system."}, {"category": "Emerging pressure point", "body": "The $22,000 wage gap driving Kentucky computer science graduates out of state is a structural retention risk for infrastructure, security, and development roles alike. Organizations slow to close that gap for specialized functions may see attrition concentrate in exactly the roles \u2014 cybersecurity, cloud, DevOps \u2014 where backfill costs are highest."}, {"category": "Potential inflection point", "body": "Statewide job growth has averaged just 571 net new jobs per month through 2026, suggesting continued softness in the competing-offer environment for commodity IT roles. That slack may create a narrow window to renegotiate support and help desk staffing models \u2014 in-house, outsourced, or hybrid \u2014 before hiring activity firms up again."}, {"category": "Early indicator", "body": "National WARN filings from large employers like Amazon, Meta, and Verizon are shedding experienced IT and operations talent into the broader market. Watch whether any of that displaced talent, particularly in network or systems administration, begins appearing in regional applicant pools given Kentucky's below-national IT wage average of $95,284."}], "roles": [{"role": "Data Scientist", "data_scope": "state_rollup", "metro_p25": 110061.5, "metro_p50": 145881.0, "metro_p75": 164185.0, "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": "metro", "metro_p25": 75483.0, "metro_p50": 85799.0, "metro_p75": 87546.5, "metro_trend_direction": "up", "metro_trend_magnitude": "significant", "national_p50": 101168.0, "national_trend_direction": "up", "national_trend_magnitude": "moderate"}, {"role": "Network Engineer", "data_scope": "metro", "metro_p25": 92373.25, "metro_p50": 101450.0, "metro_p75": 124625.0, "metro_trend_direction": "stable", "metro_trend_magnitude": "stable", "national_p50": 114400.0, "national_trend_direction": "up", "national_trend_magnitude": "moderate"}, {"role": "Software Engineer", "data_scope": "metro", "metro_p25": 64731.25, "metro_p50": 68995.0, "metro_p75": 68995.75, "metro_trend_direction": "stable", "metro_trend_magnitude": "stable", "national_p50": 153652.0, "national_trend_direction": "stable", "national_trend_magnitude": "stable"}, {"role": "Help Desk/IT Support Specialist", "data_scope": "metro", "metro_p25": 49445.0, "metro_p50": 51106.2, "metro_p75": 51287.0, "metro_trend_direction": "down", "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": 84240.0, "metro_p50": 104500.0, "metro_p75": 122351.75, "metro_trend_direction": "up", "metro_trend_magnitude": "significant", "national_p50": 106790.0, "national_trend_direction": "up", "national_trend_magnitude": "moderate"}, {"role": "IT Project Manager", "data_scope": "state_rollup", "metro_p25": 83183.75, "metro_p50": 110940.0, "metro_p75": 123772.5, "metro_trend_direction": "up", "metro_trend_magnitude": "moderate", "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": "elizabethtown-ky-msa/information-technology/2026-09.html", "pdf": "elizabethtown-ky-msa/information-technology/2026-09.pdf"}, "published_at": "2026-10-09T13:50:19.667325+00:00", "report_html_url": "https://reports.wagescape.com/archive/v1/editions/elizabethtown-ky-msa/information-technology/2026-09.html", "report_pdf_url": "https://reports.wagescape.com/archive/v1/editions/elizabethtown-ky-msa/information-technology/2026-09.pdf"}