{"schema_version": 1, "id": "id-nonmetropolitan-area/information-technology/2026-10", "product": "Labor Market Pulse", "metro": {"geography_id": 320, "label": "ID NONMETROPOLITAN AREA", "slug": "id-nonmetropolitan-area"}, "focus_area": {"key": "information_technology", "slug": "information-technology", "label": "Information Technology"}, "period": "2026-10", "public_after": "2026-10-01", "frozen_at": "2026-11-03T03:13:22.476226+00:00", "headline": "Moscow IT pay splits: security up, infrastructure down.", "headline_summary": "Cybersecurity Analyst advertised pay rose to $124,247 locally while Network Engineer pay fell to $77,352, a divergence against national trends that reshapes where IT budgets should concentrate.", "key_indicators": [{"label": "North Central Idaho postings/unemployed", "value": "1.4", "context": "Up from 1.1 year-over-year, signaling tighter competition"}, {"label": "Network Engineer advertised pay (metro)", "value": "$77,352", "context": "Down significantly vs. national $115,757, up moderately"}, {"label": "Cybersecurity Analyst advertised pay (metro)", "value": "$124,247", "context": "Up moderately, above national median of $107,327"}, {"label": "North Central Idaho unemployment", "value": "3.8%", "context": "Up 0.1% month-over-month, down 0.1% year-over-year"}], "takeaways": [{"headline": "Local infrastructure pay is falling while national pay rises.", "body": "Systems Administrator and Network Engineer advertised pay both declined locally this month even as national figures moved up moderately \u2014 a divergence that typically precedes talent flight to remote roles priced at national rates. Local infrastructure headcount plans should account for this widening gap before it shows up as attrition."}, {"headline": "Security and engineering pay are pulling away from the rest of the stack.", "body": "Cybersecurity Analyst and Software Engineer advertised pay rose locally this month, outperforming most other IT roles in this market and tracking the national pattern of specialized-skill premiums (AI/ML and IT systems roles posting 4.7%-plus national wage growth). Budget allocation decisions should reflect that these functions are commanding a premium independent of broader metro wage softness."}, {"headline": "Help Desk pay erosion signals outsourcing pressure is building.", "body": "Help Desk/IT Support advertised pay fell significantly locally against an already-declining national figure, consistent with Idaho's broader technical-support wage gap of roughly 7-11% below national averages. On-premise support staffing may be approaching a cost threshold where remote or outsourced support becomes the more defensible choice."}, {"headline": "Tight regional labor supply complicates any build-local strategy.", "body": "North Central Idaho's rising postings-per-unemployed ratio (1.4, up from 1.1) shows a market where qualified technical candidates are scarce even as some advertised pay figures soften, a combination that points to employers struggling to price roles correctly even amid thin supply. Local hiring timelines should build in longer time-to-fill assumptions even where posted pay looks flat or down."}], "local_conditions": "Moscow metro IT hiring activity this month reflects a split regional economy: North Central Idaho's unemployment ticked up slightly to 3.8% while job postings per unemployed worker rose to 1.4 from 1.1 year-over-year, signaling intensifying competition for a thin talent pool even as headline joblessness looks stable. University town labor supply and a modest regional economy mean advertised pay for most technical roles here is running well below national figures, while Software Engineer and Cybersecurity Analyst pay moved up against that current.", "implications": "Falling advertised pay for Data Scientist, Systems Administrator, Network Engineer, and Help Desk roles locally, set against stable-to-rising national pay in those same functions, suggests Moscow-area employers are either losing pricing power to compete for infrastructure and support talent or are shifting work toward remote/national candidate pools priced at metro discount. Rising local pay for Software Engineer (+moderate) and Cybersecurity Analyst (+moderate) against a backdrop of statewide recognition that IT roles need market-based increases indicates employers are concentrating scarce compensation budget on build/security functions, with less going toward spreading it evenly across the stack. Consider evaluating whether infrastructure and support roles showing local pay declines are candidates for remote hiring or outsourcing, while reserving locally-anchored budget increases for engineering and security functions where retention risk is highest.", "looking_ahead": [{"category": "Early indicator", "body": "Watch whether Idaho's recommended 5.5% IT/engineering state raise and the governor's proposed 4.5% market adjustment show up in regional private-sector postings over the next quarter \u2014 a signal of whether public-sector pay moves pull private employers upward in this labor pool."}, {"category": "Emerging pressure point", "body": "National tech layoffs already exceeding 133,000 through October could begin feeding remote-eligible candidates into this market; monitor whether Moscow-area job ads for infrastructure and support roles, a signal of hiring demand (one ad often covers several openings), see increased applicant volume at current advertised pay levels."}, {"category": "Worth watching", "body": "South Central Idaho's softening labor demand (falling postings, employer count, and wages) sits adjacent to this market \u2014 track whether that softening spreads north and further depresses local advertised pay for support and network roles."}, {"category": "Potential inflection point", "body": "AI-related postings now exceed 7% of all U.S. postings; watch for the first signs of AI-specific IT postings appearing in regional job ad data, which would mark the start of local premium pricing for that skill set."}], "roles": [{"role": "Data Scientist", "data_scope": "metro", "metro_p25": 74996.0, "metro_p50": 93036.0, "metro_p75": 127997.5, "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": 71867.0, "metro_p50": 84536.0, "metro_p75": 92081.0, "metro_trend_direction": "down", "metro_trend_magnitude": "moderate", "national_p50": 102503.0, "national_trend_direction": "up", "national_trend_magnitude": "moderate"}, {"role": "Network Engineer", "data_scope": "metro", "metro_p25": 58761.0, "metro_p50": 77352.0, "metro_p75": 89449.5, "metro_trend_direction": "down", "metro_trend_magnitude": "significant", "national_p50": 115757.0, "national_trend_direction": "up", "national_trend_magnitude": "moderate"}, {"role": "Software Engineer", "data_scope": "metro", "metro_p25": 99663.0, "metro_p50": 143909.0, "metro_p75": 149865.0, "metro_trend_direction": "up", "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": 37276.0, "metro_p50": 41709.0, "metro_p75": 49354.0, "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": 85000.0, "metro_p50": 124246.6, "metro_p75": 132857.0, "metro_trend_direction": "up", "metro_trend_magnitude": "moderate", "national_p50": 107327.0, "national_trend_direction": "up", "national_trend_magnitude": "moderate"}, {"role": "IT Project Manager", "data_scope": "metro", "metro_p25": 107176.0, "metro_p50": 132563.0, "metro_p75": 134266.0, "metro_trend_direction": "stable", "metro_trend_magnitude": "stable", "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": "id-nonmetropolitan-area/information-technology/2026-10.html", "pdf": "id-nonmetropolitan-area/information-technology/2026-10.pdf"}, "published_at": "2026-11-03T08:23:25.168176+00:00", "report_html_url": "https://reports.wagescape.com/archive/v1/editions/id-nonmetropolitan-area/information-technology/2026-10.html", "report_pdf_url": "https://reports.wagescape.com/archive/v1/editions/id-nonmetropolitan-area/information-technology/2026-10.pdf"}