{"schema_version": 1, "id": "grand-forks-nd-mn-msa/information-technology/2026-10", "product": "Labor Market Pulse", "metro": {"geography_id": 207, "label": "Grand Forks, ND-MN MSA", "slug": "grand-forks-nd-mn-msa"}, "focus_area": {"key": "information_technology", "slug": "information-technology", "label": "Information Technology"}, "period": "2026-10", "public_after": "2026-10-01", "frozen_at": "2026-11-03T03:08:19.098995+00:00", "headline": "Grand Forks IT pay splits sharply by role as talent stays scarce.", "headline_summary": "Help Desk pay jumped to $64,928 and Cybersecurity Analyst pay to $93,083 locally, even as Systems Administrator pay slipped to $95,306 against a rising $102,503 national median.", "key_indicators": [{"label": "Metro unemployment rate", "value": "2.8%", "context": "Aug 2026, up from 2.5% in April"}, {"label": "Statewide job openings", "value": "12,000+", "context": "vs ~4,000 new ND jobs created annually"}, {"label": "ND information-sector wage growth", "value": "61%", "context": "2015 ($58,866) to 2025 ($94,489)"}, {"label": "National tech layoffs, 2026 YTD", "value": "133,417", "context": "Already exceeds full-year 2025 total"}], "takeaways": [{"headline": "Support roles are outpricing systems administration locally.", "body": "Help Desk/IT Support advertised pay rose to $64,928 (up significantly) while Systems Administrator pay fell to $95,306 (down, moderate) even as the national Systems Administrator median climbed to $102,503. This divergence may signal Grand Forks employers are compressing their internal pay ladder, which risks flattening the incentive to advance from support into administration roles locally."}, {"headline": "Network Engineer pay is converging toward national rates.", "body": "Metro Network Engineer pay jumped significantly to $95,598, narrowing the gap with the $115,757 national median faster than most other IT roles tracked this month. Consider benchmarking this role more frequently than annually, since the pace of local movement suggests historical pay bands may already be stale."}, {"headline": "Cybersecurity wage pressure reflects a thin statewide bench.", "body": "Cybersecurity Analyst pay rose significantly to $93,083 against a national backdrop where cybersecurity has no documented state AI-screening or hiring regulation to fall back on for vendor vetting. Organizations unable to compete on cash may need to lean harder on managed security service providers to build out capacity beyond what in-house teams can deliver."}, {"headline": "Software Engineer pay gains outpace a flat national trend.", "body": "Metro Software Engineer pay rose significantly to $134,700 while the national median held stable at $154,403, narrowing a gap that typically favored larger tech hubs. That narrowing is consistent with the national pattern of data-center and infrastructure buildout favoring secondary markets while coastal tech hubs contract."}], "local_conditions": "Grand Forks IT employers are hiring against a metro unemployment rate of 2.8% and a state workforce shortfall exceeding 12,000 open positions against roughly 4,000 new jobs created annually, leaving infrastructure, support, and security functions competing with every other sector for the same thin candidate pool. University of North Dakota, Grand Forks Public Schools, and Altru Health System anchor local demand for IT talent, while statewide information-sector wages have climbed 61% over the past decade \u2014 a pace that is reshaping what competitive pay looks like in a market still 33rd nationally in average weekly wages.", "implications": "Advertised pay for Help Desk/IT Support ($64,928, up significantly) and Cybersecurity Analyst ($93,083, up significantly) locally is climbing faster than their national counterparts, suggesting Grand Forks employers are bidding up entry-to-mid-level roles to offset a labor pool too small to fill 12,000-plus statewide vacancies through local hiring alone. That dynamic favors headcount strategies that pair a smaller core on-prem/security team with outsourced routine support or regional remote hires, since national data show 41% of technologists would trade salary for remote flexibility. Consider evaluating which support and administration functions could shift to remote or managed-service delivery before committing to further local wage increases to fill entry-level seats.", "looking_ahead": [{"category": "Worth watching", "body": "North Dakota's proposed Department of Workforce Development could bring new coordination to the 12,000-vacancy gap statewide. Watch whether any resulting programs target IT or technical training specifically, which would ease the local hiring bottleneck IT leaders face."}, {"category": "Emerging pressure point", "body": "National tech layoffs have already exceeded 133,000 workers for 2026, concentrated in major tech hubs and largely separate from this metro. Watch whether any of that displaced talent, particularly cloud or AI-adjacent engineers, becomes available for remote hire into Grand Forks-based roles."}, {"category": "Early indicator", "body": "Systems Administrator pay fell locally this month even as the national figure rose, a reversal worth tracking over the next reporting cycle. If the decline persists, it may point to softening local demand for traditional on-prem administration as organizations shift toward cloud-managed infrastructure."}, {"category": "Potential inflection point", "body": "Statewide information-sector wage growth has outpaced overall North Dakota wage growth for a decade, but Q1 2026 data show the state ranking 49th in wage growth generally. Watch whether IT-specific compensation continues to outrun the broader state trend or begins to flatten alongside it."}], "roles": [{"role": "Data Scientist", "data_scope": "state_rollup", "metro_p25": 103706.25, "metro_p50": 146764.4, "metro_p75": 160327.0, "metro_trend_direction": "up", "metro_trend_magnitude": "moderate", "national_p50": 145881.0, "national_trend_direction": "stable", "national_trend_magnitude": "stable"}, {"role": "Systems Administrator", "data_scope": "metro", "metro_p25": 63811.0, "metro_p50": 95306.4, "metro_p75": 97472.0, "metro_trend_direction": "down", "metro_trend_magnitude": "moderate", "national_p50": 102503.0, "national_trend_direction": "up", "national_trend_magnitude": "moderate"}, {"role": "Network Engineer", "data_scope": "metro", "metro_p25": 77817.25, "metro_p50": 95597.6, "metro_p75": 97564.75, "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": 87232.0, "metro_p50": 134700.0, "metro_p75": 144514.0, "metro_trend_direction": "up", "metro_trend_magnitude": "significant", "national_p50": 154403.0, "national_trend_direction": "stable", "national_trend_magnitude": "stable"}, {"role": "Help Desk/IT Support Specialist", "data_scope": "metro", "metro_p25": 32856.0, "metro_p50": 64928.0, "metro_p75": 68000.0, "metro_trend_direction": "up", "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": 73122.0, "metro_p50": 93083.2, "metro_p75": 130025.0, "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": "state_rollup", "metro_p25": 87880.0, "metro_p50": 113656.0, "metro_p75": 122434.5, "metro_trend_direction": "stable", "metro_trend_magnitude": "stable", "national_p50": 118149.8, "national_trend_direction": "stable", "national_trend_magnitude": "stable"}], "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": "November 2026", "files": {"html": "grand-forks-nd-mn-msa/information-technology/2026-10.html", "pdf": "grand-forks-nd-mn-msa/information-technology/2026-10.pdf"}, "published_at": "2026-11-03T08:22:27.510765+00:00", "report_html_url": "https://reports.wagescape.com/archive/v1/editions/grand-forks-nd-mn-msa/information-technology/2026-10.html", "report_pdf_url": "https://reports.wagescape.com/archive/v1/editions/grand-forks-nd-mn-msa/information-technology/2026-10.pdf"}