{"schema_version": 1, "id": "jacksonville-nc-msa/information-technology/2026-10", "product": "Labor Market Pulse", "metro": {"geography_id": 286, "label": "Jacksonville, NC MSA", "slug": "jacksonville-nc-msa"}, "focus_area": {"key": "information_technology", "slug": "information-technology", "label": "Information Technology"}, "period": "2026-10", "public_after": "2026-10-01", "frozen_at": "2026-11-03T03:16:43.780145+00:00", "headline": "Jacksonville IT pay splits: security up, infrastructure down.", "headline_summary": "Cybersecurity Analyst advertised pay climbed to $107,629 in the Jacksonville metro while Systems Administrator pay fell significantly to $83,749, nearly $19,000 below the national median.", "key_indicators": [{"label": "Metro unemployment rate", "value": "3.9%", "context": "vs 4.1% national rate, August 2026"}, {"label": "Systems Administrator pay gap", "value": "$83,749", "context": "vs $102,503 national, down significantly"}, {"label": "Cybersecurity Analyst pay", "value": "$107,629", "context": "up significantly, near $107,327 national"}, {"label": "Metro all-occupation avg hourly pay", "value": "$21.78", "context": "Onslow County, Oct 2026, ZipRecruiter"}], "takeaways": [{"headline": "Cybersecurity pay in Jacksonville now rivals national rates.", "body": "Metro Cybersecurity Analyst advertised pay rose to $107,629, nearly matching the national median of $107,327 \u2014 a significant local increase. For a metro where most IT pay trails national figures, this convergence signals security talent is being priced competitively even in a secondary market, raising the bar for retention budgets."}, {"headline": "Systems Administrator pay is sliding while national pay climbs.", "body": "Metro Systems Administrator advertised pay dropped significantly to $83,749 against a national median of $102,503 that moved up moderately. Widening gap is consistent with national signals that routine infrastructure roles are increasingly candidates for outsourcing or offshoring over local hiring."}, {"headline": "IT Project Manager pay softened against a stable national market.", "body": "Metro IT Project Manager pay fell moderately to $110,000 while the national figure held stable at $118,150. Declining local demand for this coordination layer may reflect fewer large local IT buildouts, or project leadership increasingly bundled into managed-service and vendor contracts over direct hires."}, {"headline": "Help Desk pay erosion compounds a tight local labor pool.", "body": "Metro Help Desk/IT Support pay fell significantly to $42,967, well below the already-declining national median of $53,129, in a county where unemployment sits at 3.9%. Low advertised pay against a tight labor market may suggest these roles are difficult to fill competitively, pushing some employers toward remote or tiered support models."}], "local_conditions": "Jacksonville MSA unemployment held at 3.9% through August, a rate that has proven sticky for several months against a national rate of 4.1%, reflecting an Onslow County economy anchored by Camp Lejeune, government, and healthcare, with limited exposure to tech-sector cyclicality. Nonagricultural employment rose a modest 0.3% year-over-year with Education and Health Services driving most gains, while the metro's broader average hourly pay of $21.78 across all occupations signals a labor market where IT roles compete against a lower local wage floor than peer metros.", "implications": "Metro IT pay data shows a split market: Cybersecurity Analyst advertised pay climbed to $107,629 (significant increase), converging with the national median, while Systems Administrator pay fell to $83,749, a significant decline that now trails the national figure by nearly $19,000. That divergence suggests local employers are willing to pay up for scarce security talent but are losing pricing power on infrastructure roles likely moving to networks, hybrid cloud, or managed service providers \u2014 a dynamic reinforced by national data showing data center and infrastructure postings up 20% in three months even as information-sector hiring nationally and in NC trends negative. Organizations should evaluate whether declining local Systems Administrator pay reflects an actual labor surplus or a shift toward outsourced infrastructure support, before assuming internal headcount can be backfilled at the same rate.", "looking_ahead": [{"category": "Worth watching", "body": "Onslow County unemployment has held at 3.9% for three straight reported months despite national softening in information-sector hiring. Watch whether military and government employment stability continues to insulate local IT wages from the national pullback in tech hubs."}, {"category": "Emerging pressure point", "body": "Systems Administrator pay has fallen significantly while demand for infrastructure and data center roles rises nationally. Track whether regional managed-service providers or remote infrastructure teams begin absorbing roles historically staffed locally."}, {"category": "Early indicator", "body": "NC's information sector has posted negative employment growth through 2025, a reversal from 8% growth in 2022. Monitor whether this statewide contraction begins to show up in Jacksonville-area IT job ad volume, a signal of hiring demand (one ad often covers several openings), over the next two reporting cycles."}, {"category": "Potential inflection point", "body": "National AI-related postings now exceed 7% of all job ads, well past the 2022 peak, while leadership roles orchestrating technology outcomes remain scarce nationally. Jacksonville IT leaders weighing automation of support or infrastructure functions should watch whether this shifts hiring away from entry-level roles toward senior orchestration talent locally."}], "roles": [{"role": "Data Scientist", "data_scope": "metro", "metro_p25": 103887.5, "metro_p50": 115260.4, "metro_p75": 124829.5, "metro_trend_direction": "up", "metro_trend_magnitude": "moderate", "national_p50": 145881.0, "national_trend_direction": "stable", "national_trend_magnitude": "stable"}, {"role": "Systems Administrator", "data_scope": "metro", "metro_p25": 75083.0, "metro_p50": 83748.8, "metro_p75": 97104.0, "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": 70008.0, "metro_p50": 98040.0, "metro_p75": 101484.5, "metro_trend_direction": "stable", "metro_trend_magnitude": "stable", "national_p50": 115757.0, "national_trend_direction": "up", "national_trend_magnitude": "moderate"}, {"role": "Software Engineer", "data_scope": "state_rollup", "metro_p25": 114700.0, "metro_p50": 145322.0, "metro_p75": 161466.0, "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": 35739.0, "metro_p50": 42966.6, "metro_p75": 55156.25, "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": 86895.0, "metro_p50": 107629.4, "metro_p75": 121682.0, "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": 79439.0, "metro_p50": 110000.0, "metro_p75": 122585.0, "metro_trend_direction": "down", "metro_trend_magnitude": "moderate", "national_p50": 118149.8, "national_trend_direction": "stable", "national_trend_magnitude": "stable"}], "industry_snapshot": [], "citations": [{"source_name": "NC Department of Commerce Labor & Economic Analysis Division", "source_url": null, "statement": "Jacksonville MSA unemployment rate at 3.9% in August 2026"}, {"source_name": "ZipRecruiter", "source_url": null, "statement": "Average hourly pay for Onslow County jobs at $21.78"}, {"source_name": "Jacksonville Business Calendar", "source_url": null, "statement": "Jacksonville MSA nonagricultural employment up 0.3% year-over-year"}, {"source_name": "NC labor market research notes", "source_url": null, "statement": "NC information sector employment negative in 2025 vs 8% growth in 2022"}, {"source_name": "Indeed Hiring Lab", "source_url": null, "statement": "AI-related postings reached 7.3% of all U.S. job postings"}, {"source_name": "Bureau of Labor Statistics", "source_url": null, "statement": "National unemployment rate stable at 4.1% in October 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": "jacksonville-nc-msa/information-technology/2026-10.html", "pdf": "jacksonville-nc-msa/information-technology/2026-10.pdf"}, "published_at": "2026-11-03T08:23:48.732670+00:00", "report_html_url": "https://reports.wagescape.com/archive/v1/editions/jacksonville-nc-msa/information-technology/2026-10.html", "report_pdf_url": "https://reports.wagescape.com/archive/v1/editions/jacksonville-nc-msa/information-technology/2026-10.pdf"}