{"schema_version": 1, "id": "fort-walton-beach-crestview-destin-fl-msa/information-technology/2026-10", "product": "Labor Market Pulse", "metro": {"geography_id": 163, "label": "Fort Walton Beach-Crestview-Destin, FL MSA", "slug": "fort-walton-beach-crestview-destin-fl-msa"}, "focus_area": {"key": "information_technology", "slug": "information-technology", "label": "Information Technology"}, "period": "2026-10", "public_after": "2026-10-01", "frozen_at": "2026-11-03T03:06:51.376542+00:00", "headline": "Metro IT pay splits: project management down, security and ops up.", "headline_summary": "Fort Walton Beach IT Project Manager pay fell to $114,723 while Cybersecurity Analyst pay climbed to $101,485, as the metro's 4.2%-4.4% unemployment rate reflects labor force growth outpacing local job creation.", "key_indicators": [{"label": "Metro unemployment rate", "value": "4.2%-4.4%", "context": "Florida statewide at 4.4%, U.S. at 4.1%"}, {"label": "IT Project Manager pay shift", "value": "-significant", "context": "Metro $114,723 vs stable national $118,150"}, {"label": "Civilian labor force", "value": "144,800", "context": "June 2026, CareerSource Okaloosa Walton region"}, {"label": "Florida WARN notices", "value": "215 notices, 15,749 workers", "context": "Statewide through Oct. 23, 2026, up from 84 filings earlier"}], "takeaways": [{"headline": "Project management pay is deflating while operations pay climbs.", "body": "IT Project Manager advertised pay dropped significantly to $114,723 against a stable national figure near $118,150, while Systems Administrator pay rose to $91,672. Rebalancing toward hands-on infrastructure and support roles may reflect leaner management layers alongside steady overall IT investment."}, {"headline": "Cybersecurity pay gains outpace broader metro wage growth.", "body": "Cybersecurity Analyst advertised pay rose moderately to $101,485, tracking the national trend ($107,327) even as Florida ranks 35th in AI readiness and faces a documented security talent-transfer problem distinct from a raw shortage. Build-vs-buy calculus should weigh internal training pipelines against managed security providers, especially given the metro's smaller talent pool relative to Tampa or Miami-Dade."}, {"headline": "Help desk pay softness signals a buyer's market for entry-level IT.", "body": "Help Desk/IT Support Specialist pay fell moderately to $54,590 locally, mirroring a national decline to $53,129, even as the metro's labor force grows faster than job creation. Organizations may find this the right moment to backfill tier-one support roles internally, given improved candidate availability."}, {"headline": "Network Engineer pay stagnation looks increasingly out of step nationally.", "body": "Metro Network Engineer pay held flat at $92,953 while the national median climbed moderately to $115,757, a widening gap of over $22,000. Flat local pay against rising national demand for infrastructure and data-center talent may put retention of experienced network staff at risk if remote opportunities become more attractive."}], "local_conditions": "Crestview-Fort Walton Beach-Destin's unemployment rate held near 4.2%-4.4% through mid-2026, tracking slightly below the state's 4.4% rate but reflecting a labor force that grew faster than job creation, consistent with CareerSource Okaloosa Walton's report of a full percentage-point increase in joblessness year-over-year. Military talent pipelines and new manufacturing investment continue to anchor technical hiring even as professional and business services employment in the metro shows signs of plateauing, leaving IT demand dependent on a narrower band of defense-adjacent and infrastructure employers.", "implications": "Metro IT Project Manager pay fell sharply (down significantly to $114,723) while Systems Administrator and Cybersecurity Analyst pay rose, suggesting employers are reallocating budget from program-management overhead toward operational and security capacity \u2014 a pattern consistent with organizations prioritizing execution and risk reduction over coordination layers. With local labor force growth outpacing job creation, the metro's smaller, defense-and-infrastructure-weighted employer base has more room to be selective, which may ease sourcing for mid-level infrastructure roles but does little for specialized cloud or AI talent that remains scarce nationally. Consider reviewing IT Project Manager headcount and scope against Systems Administrator and Cybersecurity Analyst staffing to confirm the mix still matches current infrastructure and security priorities and is not shaped by legacy org design.", "looking_ahead": [{"category": "Worth watching", "body": "October 2026 BLS unemployment data for the MSA is expected in early-to-mid November; a rate holding near 4.2%-4.4% would confirm the labor force growth outpacing job creation story, while any uptick above 4.5% would signal tightening budgets among local employers."}, {"category": "Emerging pressure point", "body": "Statewide WARN filings have accelerated to 215 notices covering nearly 15,750 workers through late October, though none yet concentrated in Okaloosa or Walton counties; a single defense-contractor or manufacturing layoff locally could meaningfully shift candidate supply given the metro's smaller labor force of 144,800."}, {"category": "Potential inflection point", "body": "National information-sector hiring rates have fallen to 1.6% of employment, reinforcing internal mobility over external recruiting; watch whether local employers follow suit by shifting open requisitions for Network Engineer and Systems Administrator roles toward internal promotion paths."}, {"category": "Early indicator", "body": "Florida's push to recruit AI talent from outside the state, given its 35th-place AI readiness ranking, may increasingly pull mid-market Fort Walton Beach employers toward remote or fractional AI and cloud expertise over local hires, a trend worth tracking in upcoming job ad data, a signal of hiring demand (one ad often covers several openings)."}], "roles": [{"role": "Data Scientist", "data_scope": "metro", "metro_p25": 106694.75, "metro_p50": 125105.6, "metro_p75": 139941.0, "metro_trend_direction": "up", "metro_trend_magnitude": "significant", "national_p50": 145881.0, "national_trend_direction": "stable", "national_trend_magnitude": "stable"}, {"role": "Systems Administrator", "data_scope": "metro", "metro_p25": 78957.0, "metro_p50": 91672.0, "metro_p75": 98318.0, "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": 76552.0, "metro_p50": 92953.0, "metro_p75": 103857.0, "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": "metro", "metro_p25": 104628.0, "metro_p50": 129447.8, "metro_p75": 136104.0, "metro_trend_direction": "up", "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": 45661.0, "metro_p50": 54590.0, "metro_p75": 56841.0, "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": 83578.0, "metro_p50": 101485.0, "metro_p75": 115000.0, "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": "metro", "metro_p25": 89554.75, "metro_p50": 114723.0, "metro_p75": 124830.5, "metro_trend_direction": "down", "metro_trend_magnitude": "significant", "national_p50": 118149.8, "national_trend_direction": "stable", "national_trend_magnitude": "stable"}], "industry_snapshot": [], "citations": [{"source_name": "Bureau of Labor Statistics", "source_url": "https://www.bls.gov/eag/eag.fl_crestviewftwaltonbeachdestin_msa.htm", "statement": "MSA unemployment rate range April-June 2026"}, {"source_name": "Florida Department of Commerce", "source_url": null, "statement": "CareerSource Okaloosa Walton unemployment rate increase year-over-year"}, {"source_name": "BLS Southeast Information Office", "source_url": null, "statement": "Civilian labor force figure for June 2026"}, {"source_name": "Florida WARN Act Tracker", "source_url": null, "statement": "Florida WARN notice totals through October 2026"}, {"source_name": "State AI Readiness Index", "source_url": null, "statement": "Florida AI readiness ranking and business AI tool adoption rate"}, {"source_name": "Bureau of Labor Statistics", "source_url": null, "statement": "National information-sector hire rate decline to 1.6%"}], "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": "fort-walton-beach-crestview-destin-fl-msa/information-technology/2026-10.html", "pdf": "fort-walton-beach-crestview-destin-fl-msa/information-technology/2026-10.pdf"}, "published_at": "2026-11-03T08:22:07.854587+00:00", "report_html_url": "https://reports.wagescape.com/archive/v1/editions/fort-walton-beach-crestview-destin-fl-msa/information-technology/2026-10.html", "report_pdf_url": "https://reports.wagescape.com/archive/v1/editions/fort-walton-beach-crestview-destin-fl-msa/information-technology/2026-10.pdf"}