{"schema_version": 1, "id": "evansville-in-ky-msa/information-technology/2026-10", "product": "Labor Market Pulse", "metro": {"geography_id": 154, "label": "Evansville, IN-KY MSA", "slug": "evansville-in-ky-msa"}, "focus_area": {"key": "information_technology", "slug": "information-technology", "label": "Information Technology"}, "period": "2026-10", "public_after": "2026-10-01", "frozen_at": "2026-11-03T03:07:28.287409+00:00", "headline": "Evansville's security pay surges as data talent gets a local discount.", "headline_summary": "Cybersecurity Analyst pay rose to $97,016 and Network Engineer pay to $113,605 in Evansville this month, even as Data Scientist pay fell to $93,890 against a stable $145,881 national median.", "key_indicators": [{"label": "Metro unemployment rate", "value": "3.6%", "context": "Up from 3.4% in August; still below 4.2% US rate"}, {"label": "Vanderburgh County wage growth", "value": "2.9% YoY", "context": "Average weekly wage $1,188, Q1 2026"}, {"label": "Vanderburgh County employment", "value": "-0.5% YoY", "context": "Job count declining even as wages rise"}, {"label": "Indiana open job postings", "value": "106,223", "context": "Statewide as of Sept. 30, 2026"}], "takeaways": [{"headline": "Security and network talent are pulling away from the pack locally.", "body": "Cybersecurity Analyst and Network Engineer advertised pay both moved up significantly in Evansville this month, outpacing national wage trends for the same roles. Infrastructure and security headcount plans should account for this premium ahead of the next requisition cycle."}, {"headline": "Local software and data talent is getting cheaper to advertise for \u2014 don't mistake that for abundance.", "body": "Data Scientist pay fell significantly locally to $93,890 against a stable $145,881 national median, and Software Engineer pay dropped moderately to $123,637 against a stable national figure. Falling advertised pay without falling demand may reflect employers right-sizing postings in a thinner applicant pool, with these skill sets remaining tight."}, {"headline": "Help desk compensation keeps sliding, a signal worth watching for support-tier planning.", "body": "Help Desk/IT Support Specialist pay fell moderately both locally ($44,720) and nationally ($53,129), continuing a trend consistent with national information-sector hiring pullbacks. Support function headcount planning may benefit from treating entry-tier roles as a buyer's market while specialist roles remain a seller's market."}, {"headline": "Indiana's shrinking labor force is quietly tightening the talent pool IT leaders draw from.", "body": "Indiana's employed resident count fell by roughly 8,800 over the past year even as participation outpaces the national rate, meaning the available worker pool is shrinking. Current conditions suggest internal mobility and retention programs deserve more weight relative to external recruiting in infrastructure and security headcount plans."}], "local_conditions": "Evansville's unemployment rate ticked up to 3.6% in September from 3.4% in August, even as the metro's wage growth held at 2.9% year-over-year \u2014 a pattern consistent with a labor market where employment is softening slightly faster than demand for skilled workers. Vanderburgh County's -0.5% year-over-year employment decline alongside rising average weekly wages suggests employers are retaining and paying for scarcer specialized talent while trimming elsewhere, a dynamic that tracks the statewide pattern of Indiana's labor force shrinking while demand holds firm.", "implications": "Cybersecurity Analyst and Network Engineer advertised pay are both up significantly locally, outpacing national movement for the same roles, which indicates Evansville employers are competing hard for infrastructure and security talent despite a cooling broader labor market. Meanwhile Data Scientist and Software Engineer pay have moved down locally even as national medians hold stable, widening the metro's discount on cloud-native and advanced analytics talent relative to national rates \u2014 a gap that affects whether those functions are better built on-site or sourced through remote or outsourced arrangements. Organizations should evaluate whether infrastructure and security headcount budgets reflect the local premium while reassessing whether scarce analytics and engineering talent is more cost-effective to access through remote or contract arrangements than through local hires at depressed local rates.", "looking_ahead": [{"category": "Early indicator", "body": "Watch whether Evansville's September unemployment uptick to 3.6% persists into October's release around month-end; a second consecutive rise would mark a shift from the stable 3.3-3.4% range held since early 2026."}, {"category": "Emerging pressure point", "body": "National tech layoffs have already exceeded all of 2025's total at 133,417 workers through October 21. Monitor whether any of that displaced talent, particularly in cloud or data roles, begins appearing in the regional candidate pool given Evansville's below-national pay for those functions."}, {"category": "Worth watching", "body": "Security and network advertised pay are rising significantly in Evansville while data and software roles decline, a divergence that may widen further if infrastructure buildout (data center activity statewide) continues pulling network talent toward premium compensation."}, {"category": "Potential inflection point", "body": "National AI-related job postings have surpassed 7% of all postings, well above the 2022 peak. Evansville IT leaders should watch whether that national premium for AI/ML skills begins pressuring local specialist pay even as general software and data roles soften."}], "roles": [{"role": "Data Scientist", "data_scope": "metro", "metro_p25": 82128.0, "metro_p50": 93890.0, "metro_p75": 127358.25, "metro_trend_direction": "down", "metro_trend_magnitude": "significant", "national_p50": 145881.0, "national_trend_direction": "stable", "national_trend_magnitude": "stable"}, {"role": "Systems Administrator", "data_scope": "metro", "metro_p25": 70339.0, "metro_p50": 89503.0, "metro_p75": 120000.0, "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": "metro", "metro_p25": 100000.0, "metro_p50": 113604.6, "metro_p75": 125779.0, "metro_trend_direction": "up", "metro_trend_magnitude": "significant", "national_p50": 115757.0, "national_trend_direction": "up", "national_trend_magnitude": "moderate"}, {"role": "Software Engineer", "data_scope": "metro", "metro_p25": 82525.5, "metro_p50": 123637.2, "metro_p75": 168121.0, "metro_trend_direction": "down", "metro_trend_magnitude": "moderate", "national_p50": 154403.0, "national_trend_direction": "stable", "national_trend_magnitude": "stable"}, {"role": "Help Desk/IT Support Specialist", "data_scope": "metro", "metro_p25": 42369.0, "metro_p50": 44720.0, "metro_p75": 46827.0, "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": "metro", "metro_p25": 69962.0, "metro_p50": 97016.0, "metro_p75": 97750.0, "metro_trend_direction": "up", "metro_trend_magnitude": "significant", "national_p50": 107327.0, "national_trend_direction": "up", "national_trend_magnitude": "moderate"}, {"role": "IT Project Manager", "data_scope": "metro", "metro_p25": 89222.0, "metro_p50": 123652.0, "metro_p75": 123653.0, "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": "Bureau of Labor Statistics / Indiana DWD", "source_url": null, "statement": "Evansville MSA unemployment rate rose to 3.6% in September from 3.4%"}, {"source_name": "Bureau of Labor Statistics QCEW", "source_url": null, "statement": "Vanderburgh County wages rose 2.9% YoY to $1,188 average weekly wage"}, {"source_name": "Layoffs.fyi", "source_url": null, "statement": "133,417 tech employees laid off at 325 companies through Oct 21, 2026"}, {"source_name": "Indiana Department of Workforce Development", "source_url": null, "statement": "Indiana employed residents fell ~8,800 over past year despite high participation"}, {"source_name": "Indeed Hiring Lab", "source_url": null, "statement": "AI-related job postings reached 7.3% of all postings, above 2022 peak of 3.3%"}, {"source_name": "Indiana Department of Workforce Development", "source_url": null, "statement": "Indiana had over 106,000 open job postings as of Sept. 30, 2026"}], "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": "evansville-in-ky-msa/information-technology/2026-10.html", "pdf": "evansville-in-ky-msa/information-technology/2026-10.pdf"}, "published_at": "2026-11-03T08:21:36.699291+00:00", "report_html_url": "https://reports.wagescape.com/archive/v1/editions/evansville-in-ky-msa/information-technology/2026-10.html", "report_pdf_url": "https://reports.wagescape.com/archive/v1/editions/evansville-in-ky-msa/information-technology/2026-10.pdf"}