{"schema_version": 1, "id": "ithaca-ny-msa/information-technology/2026-10", "product": "Labor Market Pulse", "metro": {"geography_id": 270, "label": "Ithaca, NY MSA", "slug": "ithaca-ny-msa"}, "focus_area": {"key": "information_technology", "slug": "information-technology", "label": "Information Technology"}, "period": "2026-10", "public_after": "2026-10-01", "frozen_at": "2026-11-03T03:13:17.584346+00:00", "headline": "Ithaca support-role pay slides as specialized talent costs climb.", "headline_summary": "Metro Systems Administrator pay fell to $100,099 and Help Desk pay to $49,920 even as Data Scientist pay jumped to $169,800, signaling a widening local split between commodity IT and specialized talent costs.", "key_indicators": [{"label": "Metro unemployment rate", "value": "4.2%", "context": "Up 0.7 pts year-over-year (Aug 2026)"}, {"label": "Tompkins County living wage", "value": "$25.08/hr", "context": "Up 1% from 2025; ~half of earners below it"}, {"label": "Systems Administrator advertised pay", "value": "$100,099", "context": "Down significantly vs $102,503 national (up)"}, {"label": "Data Scientist advertised pay", "value": "$169,800", "context": "vs $145,881 national median"}], "takeaways": [{"headline": "Support-role pay is falling locally while demand hasn't.", "body": "Systems Administrator advertised pay dropped significantly to $100,099 and Help Desk pay fell to $49,920, even as national infrastructure and security postings grew 150%+ month-over-month in New York. Declining local pay alongside sustained operational demand may signal employers are testing lower offers despite a tight supply picture."}, {"headline": "Data Scientist pay surge outpaces the metro's talent base.", "body": "Metro Data Scientist median rose to $169,800, well above the $145,881 national figure, likely reflecting Cornell-linked research and AI-adjacent demand concentrated in a small local candidate pool. Build-vs-buy tradeoffs favor contractor or remote arrangements for specialized analytics work that this metro cannot easily source internally."}, {"headline": "Living-wage math is squeezing entry-level IT retention.", "body": "Nearly half of Tompkins County wage earners fall below the $25.08 living-wage threshold, and Help Desk advertised pay of $49,920 (about $24/hour) sits close to that line. Entry-level support hires may churn toward Cornell, healthcare, or remote employers offering comparable pay with lower cost-of-living pressure."}, {"headline": "Network Engineer pay gap with national rates is narrowing slowly.", "body": "Metro Network Engineer pay rose moderately to $108,043 against a national median of $115,757, a $7,700 gap that has closed somewhat this year. Infrastructure buildout tied to data center and hybrid-cloud projects nationally may be lifting local demand for networking skills even without a major local data center presence."}], "local_conditions": "Ithaca's unemployment rate held at 4.2% in August, a 0.7-point rise from a year earlier, as Cornell University and the region's healthcare systems remain the dominant demand anchors in a metro with limited tech-sector density compared to NYC or Buffalo. Tompkins County's $25.08 living-wage threshold and a cost of living that outpaces the rest of upstate New York are compressing the gap between entry-level IT pay and what workers need to stay in the area, pushing some candidates toward remote roles with employers outside the metro.", "implications": "Metro advertised pay for Systems Administrator ($100,099) and Help Desk/IT Support Specialist ($49,920) both fell this month even as national medians held or dipped only modestly, suggesting Ithaca employers face less local wage pressure for commodity infrastructure and support roles than the national market implies. That gap strengthens the case for keeping routine support and administration functions local or near-shore while reserving competition for scarce cloud-native or AI talent to specialized roles, while Data Scientist pay rising to $169,800 locally signals Cornell-adjacent demand for specialized analytics talent that will require premium offers regardless of metro cost-of-living norms. Consider reviewing whether current infrastructure and support compensation still clears the local living-wage threshold, since advertised pay softness could mask retention risk even where labor supply appears adequate.", "looking_ahead": [{"category": "Emerging pressure point", "body": "Watch whether Systems Administrator and Help Desk pay continue falling locally while national infrastructure postings grow \u2014 a widening gap could indicate Ithaca employers are under-pricing support roles relative to actual retention risk."}, {"category": "Worth watching", "body": "Tompkins County Legislature discussions on a countywide minimum wage could reset the wage floor for IT support staff tied closely to the living-wage benchmark, affecting budget planning for help desk and junior infrastructure roles."}, {"category": "Potential inflection point", "body": "New York's statewide minimum wage freeze, triggered by job losses through July, removes a scheduled January 2027 increase \u2014 monitor whether Governor Hochul's promised workaround changes wage-floor assumptions for lower-band IT roles before year-end budgeting."}, {"category": "Early indicator", "body": "National tech layoffs already exceed 133,000 for 2026; track whether displaced talent from larger metros begins appearing in the Ithaca candidate pool, potentially easing the Data Scientist and AI-adjacent talent shortage locally."}], "roles": [{"role": "Data Scientist", "data_scope": "metro", "metro_p25": 127500.0, "metro_p50": 169800.0, "metro_p75": 188950.0, "metro_trend_direction": "up", "metro_trend_magnitude": "significant", "national_p50": 145881.0, "national_trend_direction": "stable", "national_trend_magnitude": "stable"}, {"role": "Systems Administrator", "data_scope": "metro", "metro_p25": 72938.0, "metro_p50": 100099.0, "metro_p75": 108572.0, "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": 73348.0, "metro_p50": 108043.0, "metro_p75": 128655.0, "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": 101634.0, "metro_p50": 152636.8, "metro_p75": 170000.0, "metro_trend_direction": "up", "metro_trend_magnitude": "significant", "national_p50": 154403.0, "national_trend_direction": "stable", "national_trend_magnitude": "stable"}, {"role": "Help Desk/IT Support Specialist", "data_scope": "metro", "metro_p25": 42158.0, "metro_p50": 49920.0, "metro_p75": 56160.0, "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": 82505.75, "metro_p50": 100003.0, "metro_p75": 118665.0, "metro_trend_direction": "stable", "metro_trend_magnitude": "stable", "national_p50": 107327.0, "national_trend_direction": "up", "national_trend_magnitude": "moderate"}, {"role": "IT Project Manager", "data_scope": "state_rollup", "metro_p25": 79861.0, "metro_p50": 113785.6, "metro_p75": 124800.0, "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": "New York State Department of Labor", "source_url": null, "statement": "Ithaca metro unemployment rate at 4.2% in August 2026"}, {"source_name": "The Ithaca Voice", "source_url": null, "statement": "Tompkins County 2026 living wage of $25.08/hour"}, {"source_name": "Tompkins County Workers Center", "source_url": null, "statement": "Nearly half of Tompkins County wage earners below living wage"}, {"source_name": "Washington Post", "source_url": null, "statement": "New York statewide minimum wage freeze triggered by job losses"}, {"source_name": "State labor market research notes", "source_url": null, "statement": "Security and infrastructure roles saw 150%+ posting growth in NY"}, {"source_name": "Layoffs.fyi / industry tracking", "source_url": null, "statement": "Tech layoffs exceeded 133,000 through October 21, 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": "ithaca-ny-msa/information-technology/2026-10.html", "pdf": "ithaca-ny-msa/information-technology/2026-10.pdf"}, "published_at": "2026-11-03T08:23:37.966245+00:00", "report_html_url": "https://reports.wagescape.com/archive/v1/editions/ithaca-ny-msa/information-technology/2026-10.html", "report_pdf_url": "https://reports.wagescape.com/archive/v1/editions/ithaca-ny-msa/information-technology/2026-10.pdf"}