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Labor Market Pulse
Great Falls, MT Metro Edition
Focus: IT
Great Falls IT pay splits: security and support up, networking down.
3.0%
Cascade County unemployment
July 2026, vs 4.1% national rate
-27.5%
Systems Administrator pay gap
Great Falls $73,335 vs national $101,168
First annual decline since 2020
Montana employment trend
2025 statewide, per state labor office
4.7% YoY
Montana wage growth
2024-2025, 2nd highest among US states
This Month's Takeaways
Systems Administrator pay is catching up fast, not keeping pace.
Advertised pay rose significantly in Great Falls this month, yet the metro median of $73,335 still sits nearly 28% below the national figure of $101,168. Local employers appear to be bidding up a historically undervalued role rather than closing the gap with competitive markets — a trend worth tracking against retention outcomes.
Network Engineer pay is falling locally while rising nationally.
Great Falls advertised pay for Network Engineers moved down even as the national median climbed to $114,400. This divergence is consistent with reduced local demand for on-prem networking expertise, reinforcing the broader national signal that traditional infrastructure roles face permanent demand compression.
Cybersecurity pay strength signals a defensive hiring posture.
Local Cybersecurity Analyst pay rose significantly to a $100,000 median, tracking closely with national increases tied to AI-driven threat complexity and the national average topping $191,700 for senior roles. Even a federally anchored, defense-adjacent economy like Great Falls appears unwilling to lose ground on security talent.
Help Desk pay gains may reflect a shrinking local candidate pool.
Help Desk/IT Support advertised pay rose significantly in Great Falls despite sitting well below the stable national median of $53,644. Montana's tight labor market and modest 2025 employment decline may be forcing employers to pay more just to fill entry-tier roles that were once easy to source.
Local Labor Conditions
Cascade County's unemployment rate held near 3.0% through mid-2026, consistent with Montana's twelfth consecutive month below 3% statewide, while Malmstrom Air Force Base and federal civilian employment continue anchoring roughly half of the county's basic industry income. Labor supply remains thin against this backdrop, and Montana's first annual employment decline since 2020 suggests hiring pressure may be plateauing even as wage expectations set during the tighter 2025 market persist.
Leadership & Talent Implications
Metro-level pay movements this month cut in two directions that matter for workforce architecture: Systems Administrator advertised pay rose significantly even as the role trades at a steep discount to national median ($73,335 vs $101,168), while Network Engineer pay moved down against a rising national trend — a divergence that signals local employers may be deprioritizing on-prem networking investment relative to cloud migration. Thin local supply for specialized cloud, security, and architecture talent, combined with Montana's documented wage acceleration, strengthens the case for outsourcing non-core infrastructure functions while reserving permanent headcount for roles tied directly to mission-critical systems. Consider evaluating which infrastructure functions currently staffed locally could shift to managed service or remote-hire arrangements given the persistent gap between Great Falls and national pay levels for networking and systems administration talent.
