{"schema_version": 1, "id": "houma-bayou-cane-thibodaux-la-msa/information-technology/2026-09", "product": "Labor Market Pulse", "metro": {"geography_id": 219, "label": "Houma-Bayou Cane-Thibodaux, LA MSA", "slug": "houma-bayou-cane-thibodaux-la-msa"}, "focus_area": {"key": "information_technology", "slug": "information-technology", "label": "Information Technology"}, "period": "2026-09", "public_after": "2026-09-01", "frozen_at": "2026-10-09T13:15:47.801686+00:00", "headline": "Houma network engineering pay breaks from the pack.", "headline_summary": "Network Engineer advertised pay in Houma climbed to $107,900 \u2014 a significant move against national's moderate gain to $114,400 \u2014 while Software Engineer pay sat flat at $153,544 and statewide IT salaries still trail the nation by roughly $15K.", "key_indicators": [{"label": "Terrebonne/Lafourche unemployment", "value": "4.1%", "context": "vs 4.2% Louisiana statewide, 4.1% U.S. national"}, {"label": "Network Engineer advertised pay", "value": "$107,900", "context": "Significant local rise vs moderate national gain to $114,400"}, {"label": "Louisiana avg IT salary", "value": "$93,813", "context": "vs national benchmark above $109K; LA ranks #50"}, {"label": "Houma RLMA job openings vs candidates", "value": "1,542 openings / 13,310 candidates", "context": "6.69 candidates per opening, Feb 2026"}], "takeaways": [{"headline": "Network engineering pay is outrunning the rest of the stack.", "body": "Metro Network Engineer advertised pay rose at a significant pace to $107,900, closing most of the gap with the $114,400 national figure while Systems Administrator and Help Desk pay moved only moderately. This divergence is consistent with energy and offshore operators modernizing field and OT connectivity, a demand signal that commodity IT roles aren't seeing."}, {"headline": "Louisiana's statewide IT pay gap is a retention tax, not a rounding error.", "body": "Average IT pay statewide sits near $93,813 against national benchmarks above $109K, with entry-level IT roles averaging just $40,319. Organizations competing for junior-to-mid IT talent should expect accelerated attrition toward remote roles or out-of-state employers unless total rewards packages explicitly offset the geographic discount."}, {"headline": "Loose local labor supply masks a tight technical bench.", "body": "A 6.69 candidates-per-job ratio in the Houma RLMA looks favorable for hiring volume, but most of that pool reflects non-technical occupations tied to energy services and healthcare support. IT leaders sourcing cloud, security or specialized infrastructure talent should treat the metro candidate pool as effectively shallow despite the headline ratio."}, {"headline": "Software Engineer pay has gone flat \u2014 and that's a signal worth reading.", "body": "Metro Software Engineer advertised pay held stable at $153,544, nearly matching the national median and showing no momentum in either direction. Flat movement in a historically hot role may suggest employers are substituting AI-assisted development tools for incremental headcount rather than bidding pay higher."}], "local_conditions": "Terrebonne and Lafourche parishes held unemployment at 4.1% through mid-2026, among the lowest in Louisiana, as offshore energy services and healthcare continue to anchor local labor demand against a backdrop of statewide manufacturing and petrochemical investment pulling skilled trades away from office-based roles. With only 1,542 online job openings against 13,310 active candidates in the Houma RLMA as of February, the metro's broader labor supply looks loose on paper even as IT-specific technical roles remain structurally hard to fill given the region's small specialized talent base.", "implications": "Network Engineer pay rising at a significant clip locally ($107,900, trailing national median movement of only moderate magnitude) suggests infrastructure modernization tied to energy-sector digitization and grid/OT network demands is outbidding Louisiana's already-compressed statewide IT pay scale, where average IT compensation trails the national figure by roughly $15K. Build-vs-buy calculus shifts further toward outsourcing for commodity infrastructure and support functions given Louisiana's #50 national salary ranking and thin bench depth, while retention budgets should concentrate on network and cybersecurity specialists where local premiums are emerging fastest. Consider reviewing network engineering compensation bands against the metro's significant upward trend before Q4 budget cycles lock in rates that may already be stale.", "looking_ahead": [{"category": "Early indicator", "body": "Watch whether Integer Technologies' LSU-linked defense-tech expansion, offering roles averaging $130K, pulls specialized engineering talent out of parish employers' existing pipelines. A single employer paying double the parish average can quietly reset local pay expectations for adjacent technical roles."}, {"category": "Emerging pressure point", "body": "Statewide WARN filings remain historically low (16 notices, 1,950 workers as of late September), but national IT-sector layoffs at Amazon, Meta, Verizon and Oracle haven't materially touched Louisiana. Monitor whether any remote-eligible displaced talent begins entering the Houma candidate pool, which could ease sourcing pressure on cloud and security roles."}, {"category": "Potential inflection point", "body": "Network Engineer pay's significant local rise against only moderate national movement could either stabilize as a new baseline or correct if energy-sector capital spending slows. Compensation committees should avoid over-anchoring 2027 budget plans to a single quarter of outsized movement."}, {"category": "Worth watching", "body": "Louisiana's Q3 2026 employment cost and wage data (due with October/November BLS releases) will clarify whether the statewide 4.0% average weekly wage growth is translating into IT-specific gains or remaining concentrated in manufacturing and energy trades."}], "roles": [{"role": "Data Scientist", "data_scope": "state_rollup", "metro_p25": 121026.0, "metro_p50": 153089.0, "metro_p75": 164385.0, "metro_trend_direction": "up", "metro_trend_magnitude": "moderate", "national_p50": 148250.0, "national_trend_direction": "up", "national_trend_magnitude": "moderate"}, {"role": "Systems Administrator", "data_scope": "state_rollup", "metro_p25": 76900.0, "metro_p50": 94247.0, "metro_p75": 105778.0, "metro_trend_direction": "up", "metro_trend_magnitude": "moderate", "national_p50": 101168.0, "national_trend_direction": "up", "national_trend_magnitude": "moderate"}, {"role": "Network Engineer", "data_scope": "state_rollup", "metro_p25": 61120.0, "metro_p50": 107900.0, "metro_p75": 128707.0, "metro_trend_direction": "up", "metro_trend_magnitude": "significant", "national_p50": 114400.0, "national_trend_direction": "up", "national_trend_magnitude": "moderate"}, {"role": "Software Engineer", "data_scope": "state_rollup", "metro_p25": 117186.0, "metro_p50": 153544.0, "metro_p75": 170000.0, "metro_trend_direction": "stable", "metro_trend_magnitude": "stable", "national_p50": 153652.0, "national_trend_direction": "stable", "national_trend_magnitude": "stable"}, {"role": "Help Desk/IT Support Specialist", "data_scope": "state_rollup", "metro_p25": 42554.5, "metro_p50": 53096.0, "metro_p75": 61250.0, "metro_trend_direction": "up", "metro_trend_magnitude": "moderate", "national_p50": 53644.0, "national_trend_direction": "stable", "national_trend_magnitude": "stable"}, {"role": "Cybersecurity Analyst", "data_scope": "state_rollup", "metro_p25": 86400.0, "metro_p50": 105000.0, "metro_p75": 125140.0, "metro_trend_direction": "up", "metro_trend_magnitude": "moderate", "national_p50": 106790.0, "national_trend_direction": "up", "national_trend_magnitude": "moderate"}, {"role": "IT Project Manager", "data_scope": "state_rollup", "metro_p25": 80783.0, "metro_p50": 115230.0, "metro_p75": 126020.0, "metro_trend_direction": "up", "metro_trend_magnitude": "moderate", "national_p50": 117530.0, "national_trend_direction": "up", "national_trend_magnitude": "moderate"}], "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": "October 2026", "files": {"html": "houma-bayou-cane-thibodaux-la-msa/information-technology/2026-09.html", "pdf": "houma-bayou-cane-thibodaux-la-msa/information-technology/2026-09.pdf"}, "published_at": "2026-10-09T14:31:36.806627+00:00", "report_html_url": "https://reports.wagescape.com/archive/v1/editions/houma-bayou-cane-thibodaux-la-msa/information-technology/2026-09.html", "report_pdf_url": "https://reports.wagescape.com/archive/v1/editions/houma-bayou-cane-thibodaux-la-msa/information-technology/2026-09.pdf"}