{"schema_version": 1, "id": "johnstown-pa-msa/information-technology/2026-09", "product": "Labor Market Pulse", "metro": {"geography_id": 237, "label": "Johnstown, PA MSA", "slug": "johnstown-pa-msa"}, "focus_area": {"key": "information_technology", "slug": "information-technology", "label": "Information Technology"}, "period": "2026-09", "public_after": "2026-09-01", "frozen_at": "2026-10-09T13:15:57.408950+00:00", "headline": "Johnstown IT pay splits: support roles up, engineering roles down.", "headline_summary": "Help Desk/IT Support advertised pay rose to $59,710 and IT Project Manager pay hit $127,384 in the Johnstown metro even as Software Engineer and Data Scientist advertised pay declined, against a backdrop of falling metro payrolls despite improving headline unemployment.", "key_indicators": [{"label": "Metro unemployment rate", "value": "4.4%", "context": "July 2026, down from 4.7% in May but up from 5.1% year-ago"}, {"label": "Metro nonfarm payrolls", "value": "49,800 jobs", "context": "Down 400 YoY despite improving unemployment rate"}, {"label": "Avg weekly wage, Johnstown MSA", "value": "$1,002", "context": "vs $1,654 U.S. average, Q1 2026"}, {"label": "Cambria County job postings", "value": "1,907 (Mar 2026)", "context": "Up 36.6% year-over-year"}], "takeaways": [{"headline": "Support roles are outpacing engineering roles in advertised pay.", "body": "Help Desk/IT Support advertised pay rose significantly to $59,710 \u2014 above the $53,644 national figure \u2014 while Software Engineer and Data Scientist advertised pay in the metro declined. Johnstown employers appear to be competing hardest for execution-layer talent, not specialized technical talent."}, {"headline": "IT Project Manager pay signals coordination work is scarce locally.", "body": "Advertised pay for IT Project Managers climbed to $127,384, well above the $117,530 national median and a significant year-over-year gain. This outpacing of national trend may reflect fewer qualified local candidates able to manage infrastructure and vendor transitions amid shrinking payrolls."}, {"headline": "Declining payrolls mask a tighter-than-it-looks candidate pool.", "body": "Johnstown nonfarm employment fell 400 jobs year-over-year even as unemployment improved to 4.4%, mirroring the Pittsburgh pattern of low headline unemployment paired with thin private-sector job growth. Expect longer recruiting cycles for infrastructure and security roles despite the headline rate suggesting slack."}, {"headline": "Engineering pay softness opens a build-vs-buy window.", "body": "Metro Software Engineer ($147,502) and Data Scientist ($146,763) advertised pay both moved down this month, diverging from stable-to-rising national figures. Softer local demand for these specializations may create near-term opportunity to source engineering talent remotely or via contract at below-national rates rather than building permanent local headcount."}], "local_conditions": "Johnstown MSA unemployment eased to 4.4% in July 2026 from 4.7% in May, yet nonfarm payrolls fell 400 jobs year-over-year to 49,800, signaling a labor market thinning rather than genuinely tightening \u2014 fewer jobs chasing a shrinking labor force rather than demand-driven hiring. Average weekly wages of $1,002 remain well below the $1,654 U.S. average, while Cambria County online job postings jumped 36.6% annually through March, suggesting employers are advertising more aggressively to compete for a limited, data-thin local IT talent pool.", "implications": "Metro pay data shows Help Desk/IT Support advertised wages up significantly (to $59,710) and IT Project Manager pay rising sharply (to $127,384) even as Software Engineer and Data Scientist advertised pay softened \u2014 a pattern consistent with Johnstown employers paying up for execution and coordination roles while higher-skill technical talent increasingly commands remote, non-metro compensation. Build-vs-buy decisions should account for this split: locally-anchored support and PM functions face real wage pressure, while cloud, AI, and senior engineering talent may be more efficiently sourced through contract or remote arrangements given the declining local advertised premium for those skills. Consider reviewing whether current compensation bands separate commodity support functions from cloud/security specializations, given the diverging advertised pay trends between them.", "looking_ahead": [{"category": "Worth watching", "body": "Average weekly wages in Johnstown dropped 0.8% year-over-year statewide while workers' comp statewide average wage index rose 3.5% \u2014 watch whether local IT wage growth decouples further from broader Pennsylvania compensation trends over Q4."}, {"category": "Early indicator", "body": "Cambria County job postings surged 36.6% annually through March; confirm whether that pace holds into Q4 postings data, which would indicate genuine hiring intent rather than a one-quarter anomaly tied to backfill or churn."}, {"category": "Emerging pressure point", "body": "Pennsylvania has logged 174 WARN filings over 24 months with information-sector job losses statewide; monitor whether any Johnstown-area facility notices emerge that could release IT support or infrastructure talent into the local pool."}, {"category": "Potential inflection point", "body": "National AI engineer and cybersecurity pay continues outpacing other IT roles by wide margins (9.2% and 8.9% YoY respectively); watch whether Johnstown employers begin advertising for these skills directly or continue relying on contract/remote arrangements given the metro's thin specialist bench."}], "roles": [{"role": "Data Scientist", "data_scope": "metro", "metro_p25": 138149.0, "metro_p50": 146763.0, "metro_p75": 146763.0, "metro_trend_direction": "down", "metro_trend_magnitude": "significant", "national_p50": 148250.0, "national_trend_direction": "up", "national_trend_magnitude": "moderate"}, {"role": "Systems Administrator", "data_scope": "metro", "metro_p25": 88990.5, "metro_p50": 104861.0, "metro_p75": 140746.0, "metro_trend_direction": "up", "metro_trend_magnitude": "significant", "national_p50": 101168.0, "national_trend_direction": "up", "national_trend_magnitude": "moderate"}, {"role": "Network Engineer", "data_scope": "state_rollup", "metro_p25": 66759.25, "metro_p50": 106618.2, "metro_p75": 122990.0, "metro_trend_direction": "up", "metro_trend_magnitude": "moderate", "national_p50": 114400.0, "national_trend_direction": "up", "national_trend_magnitude": "moderate"}, {"role": "Software Engineer", "data_scope": "metro", "metro_p25": 113462.25, "metro_p50": 147502.0, "metro_p75": 154590.75, "metro_trend_direction": "down", "metro_trend_magnitude": "moderate", "national_p50": 153652.0, "national_trend_direction": "stable", "national_trend_magnitude": "stable"}, {"role": "Help Desk/IT Support Specialist", "data_scope": "metro", "metro_p25": 36297.0, "metro_p50": 59710.0, "metro_p75": 59710.0, "metro_trend_direction": "up", "metro_trend_magnitude": "significant", "national_p50": 53644.0, "national_trend_direction": "stable", "national_trend_magnitude": "stable"}, {"role": "Cybersecurity Analyst", "data_scope": "state_rollup", "metro_p25": 84520.0, "metro_p50": 101546.0, "metro_p75": 117314.0, "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": "metro", "metro_p25": 115996.0, "metro_p50": 127384.0, "metro_p75": 133475.0, "metro_trend_direction": "up", "metro_trend_magnitude": "significant", "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": "johnstown-pa-msa/information-technology/2026-09.html", "pdf": "johnstown-pa-msa/information-technology/2026-09.pdf"}, "published_at": "2026-10-09T13:51:58.968115+00:00", "report_html_url": "https://reports.wagescape.com/archive/v1/editions/johnstown-pa-msa/information-technology/2026-09.html", "report_pdf_url": "https://reports.wagescape.com/archive/v1/editions/johnstown-pa-msa/information-technology/2026-09.pdf"}