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Labor Market Pulse
Monroe, LA Metro Edition
Focus: IT
Monroe's infrastructure pay is falling as national rates climb.
4.2%
Monroe MSA unemployment rate
Unchanged month-over-month, September 2026
$82,743 vs $114,400
Network Engineer pay gap
Metro median vs national median, down significantly locally
50th nationally
Louisiana avg IT salary rank
$93,813 avg vs national benchmark above $109K
1,811 in 2026
Louisiana WARN-affected workers
Down 63% from 2025, limiting displaced-talent supply
This Month's Takeaways
Network and software engineering pay is collapsing locally while national pay climbs.
Monroe's Network Engineer median sits at $82,743 against a national $114,400, and Software Engineer pay is down significantly to $59,453 versus a stable $153,652 nationally. This divergence suggests local employers are either disengaging from these searches or quietly shifting the work to remote and contracted talent pools.
Help desk pay is rising sharply — a signal worth reading carefully.
Monroe's Help Desk/IT Support median climbed significantly to $46,474, outpacing the national move to $53,644. Rising entry-tier pay in a flat labor market may indicate employers competing harder for a shrinking pool of local support staff rather than genuine wage inflation across the role.
Cybersecurity and data science remain the metro's bright spots.
Data Scientist pay in Monroe ($153,089) now exceeds the national median ($148,250), and Cybersecurity Analyst pay ($105,000) tracks closely with national levels ($106,790). Both show moderate upward movement, consistent with national data showing cybersecurity and AI-adjacent roles commanding the steepest premiums — these remain the roles least suited to cost-driven outsourcing.
Louisiana's IT pay floor keeps retention risk structural, not cyclical.
Statewide average IT pay of $93,813 ranks Louisiana 50th nationally, with entry-level roles averaging just $40,319. Specialized exceptions like Integer Technologies' $130K defense-tech roles show what premium pay looks like locally — a gap most IT departments cannot close through base pay alone.
Local Labor Conditions
Monroe MSA unemployment held at 4.2% in September with nonfarm payrolls essentially flat, consistent with a metro economy that is stable but not generating meaningfully new labor supply for technical roles. Louisiana's statewide IT pay average of $93,813 — roughly 14% below the national figure near $109K — continues to push cost-sensitive employers toward automation and outsourcing rather than local hiring to close capability gaps.
Leadership & Talent Implications
Flat metro employment paired with a 4.2% unemployment rate means IT leaders are not seeing fresh local supply of technical talent, while two of the metro's core infrastructure roles — Network Engineer and Software Engineer — show significant advertised pay declines against rising national medians, a divergence that likely reflects softening local demand rather than improved affordability. That gap widens the build-vs-buy calculus: local employers can no longer assume parity with national infrastructure talent costs, making remote or contracted specialists increasingly competitive even at a premium. Consider evaluating whether current infrastructure and network engineering vacancies are better filled through regional contract arrangements than continued local recruitment.
