{"schema_version": 1, "id": "greeley-co-msa/information-technology/2026-10", "product": "Labor Market Pulse", "metro": {"geography_id": 222, "label": "Greeley, CO MSA", "slug": "greeley-co-msa"}, "focus_area": {"key": "information_technology", "slug": "information-technology", "label": "Information Technology"}, "period": "2026-10", "public_after": "2026-10-01", "frozen_at": "2026-11-03T03:10:17.366684+00:00", "headline": "Greeley IT pay splits: security and network up, support down sharply.", "headline_summary": "Cybersecurity Analyst pay rose significantly to $114,879 locally while Systems Administrator pay fell to $87,480, even as Weld County's 5.0% jobless rate outpaces Colorado's 4.1%.", "key_indicators": [{"label": "Weld County unemployment", "value": "5.0%", "context": "vs 4.1% Colorado statewide, September 2026"}, {"label": "Weld County wage growth", "value": "5.3% YoY", "context": "Avg weekly wage $1,446, Q1 2026"}, {"label": "National tech layoffs, 2026 YTD", "value": "133,417 workers", "context": "Already exceeds full-year 2025 total"}, {"label": "Colorado tech sector median wage", "value": "$103,946", "context": "118% above all-occupation median statewide"}], "takeaways": [{"headline": "Network Engineer pay is outrunning the national rate.", "body": "Metro median advertised pay for Network Engineer reached $121,483, above the $115,757 national figure and up moderately both locally and nationally. Data center and infrastructure buildout nationally appears to be pulling local pay for this role above its usual discount to national benchmarks."}, {"headline": "Cybersecurity pay gains look structural.", "body": "Metro Cybersecurity Analyst pay rose significantly to $114,879, outpacing the national moderate increase to $107,327. Combined with statewide reports that 87% of tech leaders pay premiums for specialized skills, this suggests security headcount plans should assume sustained premium pricing as the durable baseline."}, {"headline": "Systems Administrator and Data Scientist pay are falling sharply here.", "body": "Metro Systems Administrator pay dropped significantly to $87,480 against a rising national median of $102,503, and Data Scientist pay fell to $93,712 versus a stable $145,881 nationally. Divergence this wide from national trend may signal softening local demand or a shift toward centralizing these functions outside the metro."}, {"headline": "Help Desk pay compression adds to retention risk.", "body": "Metro Help Desk/IT Support pay fell significantly to $57,200 even as it remains above the declining national median of $53,129. Pairing wage declines in support roles with Colorado's structural talent drain from retirement-age workers suggests organizations may be underpricing roles that are harder to backfill than the pay trend implies."}], "local_conditions": "Weld County's unadjusted unemployment rate climbed to 5.0% in September, running well ahead of the statewide 4.1% figure, even as Q1 vacancy growth of 15.7% signaled continued employer appetite for talent. Average weekly wages rose 5.3% year-over-year to $1,446, suggesting employers are raising pay to clear a tighter local labor pool even as the headline jobless rate softens.", "implications": "Greeley's combination of rising local wages and a looser unemployment picture than the state average points to a labor market that is simultaneously loosening in volume and tightening in price for skilled roles \u2014 a pattern consistent with national data showing data center and infrastructure hiring outpacing tech-hub demand. IT leaders weighing build-versus-buy decisions for infrastructure and support functions should note that Greeley's wage growth outpaces several Front Range peers, narrowing the cost advantage that once favored secondary-market hiring over Denver-metro or remote talent pools. Consider evaluating whether current infrastructure and support headcount plans still reflect a cost-arbitrage assumption that Greeley's wage trajectory may be eroding.", "looking_ahead": [{"category": "Emerging pressure point", "body": "Colorado's tech sector median wage sits 118% above the all-occupation average while the state labor force has shrunk by roughly 95,000 people in two years, with 62% of departures aged 55 and older. Watch whether Greeley-area infrastructure and security teams see accelerated departures as this demographic drain compounds locally."}, {"category": "Worth watching", "body": "Weld County's unadjusted unemployment rate at 5.0% against the state's 4.1% suggests local labor supply may be loosening faster than wage data currently reflects. A widening gap over the next two releases (next due November 20) could open a window to rebuild support and administration headcount at more favorable pay."}, {"category": "Potential inflection point", "body": "National tech layoffs have already exceeded 133,000 workers through October, surpassing all of 2025, while data center job postings grew 20% in three months. Monitor whether released cloud or security talent begins surfacing in the Greeley candidate pool, particularly for roles tied to infrastructure buildout alongside tech-hub cloud-native work."}, {"category": "Early indicator", "body": "Colorado's $6.7M federal tech-skills training grant creates a near-term pipeline of trained workers before they disperse to larger metros. IT leaders planning 2027 entry-level infrastructure or support hiring should track program completions locally over the next 60 days."}], "roles": [{"role": "Data Scientist", "data_scope": "metro", "metro_p25": 77490.75, "metro_p50": 93712.0, "metro_p75": 107876.75, "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": 80000.0, "metro_p50": 87479.6, "metro_p75": 92778.0, "metro_trend_direction": "down", "metro_trend_magnitude": "significant", "national_p50": 102503.0, "national_trend_direction": "up", "national_trend_magnitude": "moderate"}, {"role": "Network Engineer", "data_scope": "state_rollup", "metro_p25": 81782.0, "metro_p50": 121483.0, "metro_p75": 132988.0, "metro_trend_direction": "up", "metro_trend_magnitude": "moderate", "national_p50": 115757.0, "national_trend_direction": "up", "national_trend_magnitude": "moderate"}, {"role": "Software Engineer", "data_scope": "metro", "metro_p25": 96265.0, "metro_p50": 121511.0, "metro_p75": 141200.5, "metro_trend_direction": "stable", "metro_trend_magnitude": "stable", "national_p50": 154403.0, "national_trend_direction": "stable", "national_trend_magnitude": "stable"}, {"role": "Help Desk/IT Support Specialist", "data_scope": "metro", "metro_p25": 44179.0, "metro_p50": 57200.0, "metro_p75": 60000.0, "metro_trend_direction": "down", "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": 90524.0, "metro_p50": 114879.0, "metro_p75": 129046.0, "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": 82822.0, "metro_p50": 118590.0, "metro_p75": 129261.0, "metro_trend_direction": "up", "metro_trend_magnitude": "moderate", "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": "greeley-co-msa/information-technology/2026-10.html", "pdf": "greeley-co-msa/information-technology/2026-10.pdf"}, "published_at": "2026-11-03T08:22:35.560979+00:00", "report_html_url": "https://reports.wagescape.com/archive/v1/editions/greeley-co-msa/information-technology/2026-10.html", "report_pdf_url": "https://reports.wagescape.com/archive/v1/editions/greeley-co-msa/information-technology/2026-10.pdf"}