{"schema_version": 1, "id": "montgomery-al-msa/information-technology/2026-09", "product": "Labor Market Pulse", "metro": {"geography_id": 265, "label": "Montgomery, AL MSA", "slug": "montgomery-al-msa"}, "focus_area": {"key": "information_technology", "slug": "information-technology", "label": "Information Technology"}, "period": "2026-09", "public_after": "2026-09-01", "frozen_at": "2026-10-09T13:16:58.267833+00:00", "headline": "Montgomery IT pay splits sharply by role as unemployment climbs.", "headline_summary": "Help Desk pay rose to $53,283 and Cybersecurity Analyst pay to $88,357 even as Montgomery unemployment climbed to 4.0%, while Systems Administrator pay fell to $91,976.", "key_indicators": [{"label": "Montgomery unemployment rate", "value": "4.0%", "context": "vs 2.8% one year earlier (Aug 2025)"}, {"label": "Alabama median advertised salary", "value": "$55,168/yr", "context": "Statewide, June 2026, up with job ad volume"}, {"label": "Alabama cybersecurity vacancies", "value": "8,000 unfilled", "context": "Against 750,000 nationwide vacancies"}, {"label": "Montgomery avg. hourly wage", "value": "$26.80", "context": "vs $33.54 national average (May 2025)"}], "takeaways": [{"headline": "Help Desk pay is surging while metro unemployment rises.", "body": "Advertised Help Desk/IT Support pay jumped significantly to $53,283, nearly matching the national median, even as Montgomery unemployment climbed to 4.0%. That combination suggests employers struggle to fill entry-tier technical roles locally despite more job seekers overall, likely reflecting a skills mismatch rather than raw labor scarcity."}, {"headline": "Cybersecurity remains a seller's market, locally and nationally.", "body": "Metro Cybersecurity Analyst pay rose significantly to $88,357, consistent with Alabama's reported 8,000 unfilled cybersecurity openings statewide. Organizations building internal security capacity should expect continued wage pressure and may find managed security services a more predictable cost alternative while the pipeline matures."}, {"headline": "Systems Administrator and Data Scientist pay are softening here, not nationally.", "body": "Metro Systems Administrator pay fell to $91,976 and Data Scientist pay to $125,787, both diverging from upward national trends. Falling local demand for these roles may reflect accelerated automation or consolidation of infrastructure work into cloud-managed functions rather than a true oversupply of talent."}, {"headline": "Software Engineer pay is rising faster locally than nationally.", "body": "Metro Software Engineer advertised pay increased to $138,750 while the national median held essentially flat at $153,652, narrowing the gap. Local employers competing for engineering talent may need to benchmark against this compressed differential rather than assuming a persistent metro discount."}], "local_conditions": "Montgomery MSA unemployment drifted up to 4.0% in August 2026 from 2.8% a year earlier, even as Alabama posted a record 124,403 job ads statewide in June and median advertised pay climbed to $55,168 annually. Rising joblessness alongside continued ad volume suggests a market where employers remain selective and roles stay open longer, rather than one where labor supply is simply tightening or loosening in one direction.", "implications": "Help Desk and Cybersecurity Analyst advertised pay are both climbing significantly in Montgomery even as broader metro unemployment rises \u2014 a signal that commodity support roles and entry-tier security talent are getting harder to source locally despite slack elsewhere in the labor pool. That divergence argues against blanket hiring freezes and toward differentiated headcount strategy: protect and pay for security and cloud-adjacent skills while routing lower-value infrastructure and support work to contract or managed-service arrangements. Consider reviewing which IT functions in your org are experiencing pay pressure independent of the metro's overall softening, and treat those as retention priorities rather than cost-cutting targets.", "looking_ahead": [{"category": "Worth watching", "body": "Montgomery unemployment has risen nearly 1.2 points year-over-year even as statewide job ad volume grows. Watch whether August's uptick extends into September data, which would indicate softening demand beyond seasonal noise."}, {"category": "Emerging pressure point", "body": "Alabama's 8,000 unfilled cybersecurity roles and the state's new CISO-led security operating models suggest continued wage competition for security talent. IT leaders planning security headcount should expect limited relief from this talent gap in the near term."}, {"category": "Early indicator", "body": "Alabama's $150 million 2026 CTE investment targets technical pipeline gaps but won't meaningfully affect hiring pools for two to three years. Near-term infrastructure and support hiring should plan around continued scarcity, not anticipated pipeline relief."}, {"category": "Potential inflection point", "body": "National information-sector job losses in August alongside flat-to-declining metro Systems Administrator and Data Scientist pay may signal early AI-driven displacement reaching Montgomery's IT functions. Track whether local postings for these roles continue contracting relative to security and engineering."}], "roles": [{"role": "Data Scientist", "data_scope": "metro", "metro_p25": 97905.0, "metro_p50": 125787.0, "metro_p75": 149842.75, "metro_trend_direction": "down", "metro_trend_magnitude": "moderate", "national_p50": 148250.0, "national_trend_direction": "up", "national_trend_magnitude": "moderate"}, {"role": "Systems Administrator", "data_scope": "metro", "metro_p25": 77179.0, "metro_p50": 91976.0, "metro_p75": 99144.5, "metro_trend_direction": "down", "metro_trend_magnitude": "moderate", "national_p50": 101168.0, "national_trend_direction": "up", "national_trend_magnitude": "moderate"}, {"role": "Network Engineer", "data_scope": "metro", "metro_p25": 82923.0, "metro_p50": 98723.6, "metro_p75": 122878.0, "metro_trend_direction": "stable", "metro_trend_magnitude": "stable", "national_p50": 114400.0, "national_trend_direction": "up", "national_trend_magnitude": "moderate"}, {"role": "Software Engineer", "data_scope": "metro", "metro_p25": 100688.75, "metro_p50": 138750.2, "metro_p75": 155100.25, "metro_trend_direction": "up", "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": 40182.0, "metro_p50": 53283.0, "metro_p75": 62793.0, "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": "metro", "metro_p25": 78702.0, "metro_p50": 88357.0, "metro_p75": 96903.0, "metro_trend_direction": "up", "metro_trend_magnitude": "significant", "national_p50": 106790.0, "national_trend_direction": "up", "national_trend_magnitude": "moderate"}, {"role": "IT Project Manager", "data_scope": "metro", "metro_p25": 108742.25, "metro_p50": 124577.0, "metro_p75": 129749.75, "metro_trend_direction": "up", "metro_trend_magnitude": "moderate", "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": "montgomery-al-msa/information-technology/2026-09.html", "pdf": "montgomery-al-msa/information-technology/2026-09.pdf"}, "published_at": "2026-10-09T14:33:23.688414+00:00", "report_html_url": "https://reports.wagescape.com/archive/v1/editions/montgomery-al-msa/information-technology/2026-09.html", "report_pdf_url": "https://reports.wagescape.com/archive/v1/editions/montgomery-al-msa/information-technology/2026-09.pdf"}