{"schema_version": 1, "id": "hi-nonmetropolitan-area/information-technology/2026-10", "product": "Labor Market Pulse", "metro": {"geography_id": 296, "label": "HI NONMETROPOLITAN AREA", "slug": "hi-nonmetropolitan-area"}, "focus_area": {"key": "information_technology", "slug": "information-technology", "label": "Information Technology"}, "period": "2026-10", "public_after": "2026-10-01", "frozen_at": "2026-11-03T03:11:49.101471+00:00", "headline": "Hawaii nonmetro unemployment rises while IT security pay climbs.", "headline_summary": "Kauai's jobless rate spiked to 5.1% after Hurricane Lowell while Cybersecurity Analyst pay rose significantly to $123,000, underscoring a split between a softening broader labor market and persistent scarcity in technical security talent.", "key_indicators": [{"label": "Kauai County unemployment", "value": "5.1%", "context": "Up from 2.5% after Hurricane Lowell, Sept 2026"}, {"label": "Hawaii County unemployment", "value": "3.5%", "context": "Highest among HI counties, Aug 2026"}, {"label": "Statewide unemployment", "value": "2.8%", "context": "Highest in two years; up from 2.7% in Aug"}, {"label": "Cybersecurity Analyst pay (metro)", "value": "$123,000", "context": "Up significantly vs. national $107,327"}], "takeaways": [{"headline": "Cybersecurity and network pay keep climbing against a cooling broader market.", "body": "Cybersecurity Analyst advertised pay rose significantly to $123,000 and Network Engineer pay moved up moderately to $124,133, even as statewide unemployment hit a two-year high of 2.8%. Demand for these skills appears insulated from the broader softening, consistent with executive surveys ranking cybersecurity as Hawaii's top business concern."}, {"headline": "IT Project Manager pay is sliding fast, and that's a signal worth reading.", "body": "Metro IT Project Manager pay fell significantly to $77,393, well below the $118,150 national median \u2014 a wider gap than most other IT roles show. This may reflect employers absorbing project coordination into existing technical roles while reducing competition for standalone PM talent."}, {"headline": "Software Engineer pay is drifting down while infrastructure roles hold firm.", "body": "Metro Software Engineer pay dropped moderately to $121,489 against a stable national median near $154,403, while Systems Administrator pay rose significantly to $98,512. Build-vs-buy decisions may increasingly favor maintaining in-house infrastructure staff over expanding local software development teams."}, {"headline": "Hurricane disruption on Kauai is a preview of workforce volatility risk.", "body": "Kauai's unemployment rate jumped from 2.5% to 5.1% in a single month following Hurricane Lowell, illustrating how quickly labor supply can shift on smaller islands. IT leaders with distributed or island-based support staff should factor climate-driven disruption into continuity and staffing contingency planning."}], "local_conditions": "Hawaii's nonmetro counties show unemployment climbing across the board \u2014 Hawaii County to 3.5%, Maui County to 3.1%, with Kauai spiking to 5.1% after Hurricane Lowell disrupted the island's labor market in September \u2014 even as computer and mathematical occupations remain among the state's fastest-growing fields through 2032. Labor force growth of 1.1% year-over-year outpacing employment growth of 0.4% statewide suggests more workers are entering the market than employers are absorbing, a dynamic that has not yet reached technical occupations given persistent scarcity in cybersecurity and infrastructure skills.", "implications": "Rising general unemployment alongside tight technical talent supply creates a split labor market: IT leaders face easing pressure on support and administrative hiring while specialized infrastructure, network, and security roles remain difficult to fill at competitive rates. Hawaii's IT pay sitting at 55-65% of mainland tech-hub equivalents continues to push skilled talent toward remote mainland employers, making retention of network and security staff an urgent planning priority alongside net-new hiring. Consider reviewing retention budgets for network engineering and cybersecurity staff ahead of 2026 wage structure updates, given that nearly 55% of Hawaii organizations plan to raise starting wages next year.", "looking_ahead": [{"category": "Expected", "body": "County-level unemployment data for October won't publish until BLS releases metro figures in December, leaving Kauai's hurricane-driven spike and broader nonmetro trends unconfirmed for several weeks. IT leaders should treat current county figures as directional when planning Q1 headcount."}, {"category": "Emerging pressure point", "body": "Statewide WARN filings in food and hospitality, retail, and healthcare have not yet extended meaningfully into technology roles, but continued cost-of-living pressure and low executive confidence (only 12.3% expect 2026 improvement) could slow discretionary IT hiring further. Watch whether displaced workers from other sectors begin appearing in help desk and support applicant pools."}, {"category": "Worth watching", "body": "Systems Administrator pay's significant local increase to $98,512 outpaces the national moderate gain, suggesting Hawaii employers are competing harder for infrastructure talent even as broader unemployment rises. Confirm whether this reflects real scarcity or a small, volatile local sample before resetting pay bands."}, {"category": "Potential inflection point", "body": "Nearly 55% of Hawaii organizations plan increased starting wages for 2026, a structural shift that could compress pay differentials between entry-level and experienced IT staff. Organizations should evaluate whether current internal equity across IT pay bands will hold once broader wage floors move."}], "roles": [{"role": "Data Scientist", "data_scope": "metro", "metro_p25": 117535.0, "metro_p50": 126800.0, "metro_p75": 138245.75, "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": 77964.0, "metro_p50": 98512.2, "metro_p75": 106478.5, "metro_trend_direction": "up", "metro_trend_magnitude": "significant", "national_p50": 102503.0, "national_trend_direction": "up", "national_trend_magnitude": "moderate"}, {"role": "Network Engineer", "data_scope": "metro", "metro_p25": 94010.0, "metro_p50": 124133.0, "metro_p75": 132265.25, "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": 72143.0, "metro_p50": 121489.0, "metro_p75": 130306.0, "metro_trend_direction": "down", "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": 52500.0, "metro_p50": 72944.0, "metro_p75": 73131.0, "metro_trend_direction": "stable", "metro_trend_magnitude": "stable", "national_p50": 53129.0, "national_trend_direction": "down", "national_trend_magnitude": "moderate"}, {"role": "Cybersecurity Analyst", "data_scope": "metro", "metro_p25": 98129.0, "metro_p50": 123000.0, "metro_p75": 133304.25, "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": "metro", "metro_p25": 74614.0, "metro_p50": 77393.4, "metro_p75": 86795.0, "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": "The Garden Island", "source_url": null, "statement": "Kauai County unemployment spiked to 5.1% after Hurricane Lowell"}, {"source_name": "Hawaii Dept. of Labor / BLS", "source_url": null, "statement": "Hawaii County unemployment at 3.5%, highest among counties"}, {"source_name": "Bureau of Labor Statistics", "source_url": null, "statement": "Hawaii statewide unemployment reached 2.8%, two-year high"}, {"source_name": "Hawaii IT labor market research notes", "source_url": null, "statement": "Hawaii IT salaries run 55-65% of San Francisco/Seattle equivalents"}, {"source_name": "Hawaii executive survey data", "source_url": null, "statement": "Cybersecurity ranks as top business concern for Hawaii executives"}, {"source_name": "Hawaii employer compensation survey", "source_url": null, "statement": "54.8% of Hawaii organizations plan increased starting wages for 2026"}], "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": "hi-nonmetropolitan-area/information-technology/2026-10.html", "pdf": "hi-nonmetropolitan-area/information-technology/2026-10.pdf"}, "published_at": "2026-11-03T08:23:01.409200+00:00", "report_html_url": "https://reports.wagescape.com/archive/v1/editions/hi-nonmetropolitan-area/information-technology/2026-10.html", "report_pdf_url": "https://reports.wagescape.com/archive/v1/editions/hi-nonmetropolitan-area/information-technology/2026-10.pdf"}