{"schema_version": 1, "id": "hagerstown-martinsburg-md-wv-msa/information-technology/2026-10", "product": "Labor Market Pulse", "metro": {"geography_id": 215, "label": "Hagerstown-Martinsburg, MD-WV MSA", "slug": "hagerstown-martinsburg-md-wv-msa"}, "focus_area": {"key": "information_technology", "slug": "information-technology", "label": "Information Technology"}, "period": "2026-10", "public_after": "2026-10-01", "frozen_at": "2026-11-03T03:12:42.069184+00:00", "headline": "Hagerstown IT pay splits sharply between security gains and support losses.", "headline_summary": "Cybersecurity Analyst pay in Hagerstown climbed to $127,000, above the $107,327 national median, while Systems Administrator pay fell to $87,627 against a rising $102,503 nationally.", "key_indicators": [{"label": "Washington County unemployment", "value": "3.6%", "context": "vs 3.9% Maryland, 4.1% national"}, {"label": "Cybersecurity Analyst pay vs national", "value": "$127,000", "context": "Exceeds $107,327 national median"}, {"label": "Systems Administrator pay decline", "value": "$87,627", "context": "Down significantly vs $102,503 national (rising)"}, {"label": "National tech layoffs YTD", "value": "133,417", "context": "Already exceeds all of 2025, through Oct 21"}], "takeaways": [{"headline": "Cybersecurity pay is pulling ahead of the metro's own benchmarks.", "body": "Hagerstown's Cybersecurity Analyst median of $127,000 now exceeds the national median of $107,327, a reversal from the typical pattern of metro discounts to national pay. This suggests local employers are bidding aggressively for scarce security talent, possibly to backfill roles vacated by federal contractor instability in the broader Maryland market."}, {"headline": "Systems Administrator pay is falling even as the role stays essential.", "body": "Metro advertised pay for Systems Administrators dropped significantly to $87,627, well below the rising national median of $102,503. Current conditions suggest either softening local demand for on-prem infrastructure skills or a shift toward outsourcing routine admin work to lower-cost regions, both consistent with national build-vs-buy trends."}, {"headline": "Help Desk compensation decline signals support-tier commoditization.", "body": "Advertised pay for Help Desk/IT Support fell significantly locally to $47,590, tracking a national decline but landing further below the $53,129 national median. This may reflect growing employer comfort with remote or offshore support delivery, particularly given that 41% of technologists nationally will trade salary for remote flexibility."}, {"headline": "Network Engineer demand looks tied to infrastructure investment.", "body": "Metro pay for Network Engineers rose significantly to $106,905, closing the gap with the $115,757 national median. Data center and infrastructure buildout nationally is filling three of the top five hiring sectors, and this local wage movement is consistent with that same capital-driven demand reaching secondary markets like Hagerstown."}], "local_conditions": "Washington County's unemployment rate held at 3.6% in September, outperforming both Maryland's 3.9% statewide rate and the national 4.1% figure, suggesting the metro's manufacturing, healthcare, and government-adjacent employment base is cushioning it from the white-collar pullback hitting information and professional services sectors nationally. Proximity to the federal contractor corridor and the DC-Baltimore tech labor shed appears to be feeding a tightening local market for cybersecurity and network talent, even as support-tier roles show clear pay softening.", "implications": "Metro pay data shows a split market: Cybersecurity Analyst and Network Engineer advertised pay are both up significantly while Systems Administrator and Help Desk pay are down significantly, indicating employers are reallocating compensation budgets toward security and infrastructure-critical roles and away from commoditized support functions. This bifurcation mirrors the national AI/cybersecurity premium story and creates a build-vs-buy inflection point for routine support and admin work, where falling advertised pay may reflect both softer local demand and viable remote or outsourced alternatives. Consider reviewing whether Systems Administrator and Help Desk roles can shift toward outsourced or hybrid-remote delivery models while redirecting the freed budget toward retention premiums for cybersecurity and network engineering talent.", "looking_ahead": [{"category": "Worth watching", "body": "Washington County's 3.6% unemployment rate sits well below the state and national averages; watch whether this tightens further as federal contractor layoffs in the broader Maryland market push displaced IT talent toward secondary metros like Hagerstown."}, {"category": "Emerging pressure point", "body": "Systems Administrator and Help Desk pay are both falling locally while cybersecurity and network pay climb. If this divergence persists, IT leaders may face accelerating attrition risk in infrastructure support roles just as those functions remain operationally critical."}, {"category": "Potential inflection point", "body": "National tech layoffs have already exceeded 133,000 workers for the year through late October. Watch whether any of that displaced talent, particularly from the DC-Baltimore corridor, begins appearing in Hagerstown-area candidate pools over the next 60 days."}, {"category": "Early indicator", "body": "Maryland's federal-private sector bifurcation is pushing contractor-dependent IT teams toward uncertainty. Monitor whether regional contractors serving federal agencies signal headcount changes that could affect Hagerstown's labor supply for infrastructure and security roles."}], "roles": [{"role": "Data Scientist", "data_scope": "metro", "metro_p25": 91416.0, "metro_p50": 135937.6, "metro_p75": 144879.5, "metro_trend_direction": "stable", "metro_trend_magnitude": "stable", "national_p50": 145881.0, "national_trend_direction": "stable", "national_trend_magnitude": "stable"}, {"role": "Systems Administrator", "data_scope": "metro", "metro_p25": 80111.0, "metro_p50": 87626.8, "metro_p75": 92325.0, "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": "metro", "metro_p25": 88565.0, "metro_p50": 106905.0, "metro_p75": 108284.0, "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": 113354.0, "metro_p50": 121250.6, "metro_p75": 134128.0, "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": 42000.0, "metro_p50": 47590.0, "metro_p75": 50845.0, "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": "metro", "metro_p25": 99116.0, "metro_p50": 127000.0, "metro_p75": 127000.0, "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": 104154.5, "metro_p50": 133600.0, "metro_p75": 145000.0, "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", "source_url": null, "statement": "Washington County, MD unemployment rate of 3.6% in September 2026"}, {"source_name": "Bureau of Labor Statistics", "source_url": null, "statement": "Maryland statewide unemployment at 3.9%, national at 4.1%"}, {"source_name": "Maryland IT labor market research", "source_url": null, "statement": "Cybersecurity talent commands 10-15% premiums for mid-level roles in Maryland"}, {"source_name": "Tech layoff tracking data", "source_url": null, "statement": "133,417 tech employees laid off at 325 companies through October 21, 2026"}, {"source_name": "National IT labor market research", "source_url": null, "statement": "41% of technologists would trade salary for remote flexibility"}, {"source_name": "National IT labor market research", "source_url": null, "statement": "Data center job postings grew 20% in three months nationally"}], "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": "hagerstown-martinsburg-md-wv-msa/information-technology/2026-10.html", "pdf": "hagerstown-martinsburg-md-wv-msa/information-technology/2026-10.pdf"}, "published_at": "2026-11-03T08:22:49.051653+00:00", "report_html_url": "https://reports.wagescape.com/archive/v1/editions/hagerstown-martinsburg-md-wv-msa/information-technology/2026-10.html", "report_pdf_url": "https://reports.wagescape.com/archive/v1/editions/hagerstown-martinsburg-md-wv-msa/information-technology/2026-10.pdf"}