{"schema_version": 1, "id": "ny-nonmetropolitan-area/information-technology/2026-10", "product": "Labor Market Pulse", "metro": {"geography_id": 384, "label": "NY NONMETROPOLITAN AREA", "slug": "ny-nonmetropolitan-area"}, "focus_area": {"key": "information_technology", "slug": "information-technology", "label": "Information Technology"}, "period": "2026-10", "public_after": "2026-10-01", "frozen_at": "2026-11-03T03:28:15.952191+00:00", "headline": "Gloversville IT pay holds flat as national rates pull ahead.", "headline_summary": "Network Engineer pay sits stable at $110,155 locally versus an upward national trend at $115,757, while Data Scientist pay bucks the pattern with a metro median of $158,163 outpacing a stable national figure.", "key_indicators": [{"label": "NY statewide unemployment", "value": "4.3%", "context": "vs 4.1% national rate, September 2026"}, {"label": "NY private-sector job growth YTD", "value": "-16,300", "context": "NYC year-to-date through September 2026"}, {"label": "Network Engineer pay trend", "value": "Stable locally", "context": "vs moderate upward move nationally ($115,757)"}, {"label": "NY WARN notices YTD", "value": "241 notices / 14,602 workers", "context": "vs 339 notices / 18,311 workers all of 2025"}], "takeaways": [{"headline": "Local infrastructure pay is flat while national rates climb.", "body": "Systems Administrator and Network Engineer advertised pay sit stable locally even as national medians moved up moderately. Gap widening over consecutive months is consistent with talent drifting toward remote opportunities paying national rates."}, {"headline": "Data Scientist pay is the metro's one clear upward signal.", "body": "Metro median of $158,163, moving up against a stable national figure of $145,881, points to localized demand or a thin regional candidate pool. Treat as a narrow signal specific to this role, separate from any broader AI wage trend in this market."}, {"headline": "Help desk wage softness tracks a national pullback.", "body": "Local Help Desk/IT Support pay is stable at $52,396 while the national median is trending down. Entry-level support roles may offer a near-term cost advantage for headcount planning, but shrinking entry-level absorption nationally could compress future internal pipelines for this metro's smaller IT shops."}, {"headline": "State fiscal caution may be capping IT budget growth.", "body": "New York's minimum wage freeze and statewide job losses through July reflect broader fiscal tightening that likely extends to technology spending in public-sector and nonprofit-adjacent employers common in this region. IT leaders tied to grant or municipal funding cycles should expect continued budget scrutiny into early 2027."}], "local_conditions": "Gloversville-area IT hiring remains tethered to upstate New York's broader stagnation, with statewide private-sector employment down 16,300 year-to-date and the minimum wage freeze signaling fiscal caution that extends to discretionary IT budgets in municipal and healthcare-adjacent employers common to Fulton County. Nationally, IT systems and solutions wages rose 4.7% year-over-year while information-sector hiring stayed sluggish, a pattern consistent with this metro's advertised pay data showing most IT roles flat or stable.", "implications": "Flat advertised pay across Systems Administrator ($95,595), Network Engineer ($110,155) and Cybersecurity Analyst ($99,878) locally \u2014 against national upward movement in all three \u2014 suggests this metro is not yet competing on comparable terms for infrastructure and security talent, raising flight risk as remote-eligible roles pull candidates toward markets paying more. Build-vs-buy calculus shifts further toward outsourcing or regional contractor arrangements for specialized security and cloud work given the gap between local stability and national wage acceleration. Consider reviewing retention risk specifically for Network Engineer and Cybersecurity Analyst staff, where local pay has lagged national trend lines long enough to create exit incentive.", "looking_ahead": [{"category": "Worth watching", "body": "Statewide WARN filings reached 241 notices covering 14,602 workers through late October; track whether any regional employer filings surface locally and whether displaced infrastructure or support staff enter the Gloversville-area candidate pool."}, {"category": "Emerging pressure point", "body": "Network Engineer and Cybersecurity Analyst local pay has held flat for multiple cycles against national gains of moderate magnitude. Continued divergence may force a compensation correction or accelerate outsourcing of security operations to regional or offshore providers."}, {"category": "Potential inflection point", "body": "New York's minimum wage freeze workaround, pledged by the Governor, could restore the scheduled January 2027 increase if passed \u2014 watch for downstream pressure on entry-level IT support wages, which currently sit well above the $17/hour floor but could face compression if broader wage scales shift."}, {"category": "Early indicator", "body": "National data center and infrastructure hiring is up sharply (postings +20% in three months) while tech-hub metros pull back. Monitor whether this metro's lower-cost profile attracts any of that infrastructure buildout activity, which could tighten local Systems Administrator and Network Engineer supply quickly."}], "roles": [{"role": "Data Scientist", "data_scope": "metro", "metro_p25": 125707.75, "metro_p50": 158162.6, "metro_p75": 174831.0, "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": 76551.0, "metro_p50": 95595.0, "metro_p75": 106238.0, "metro_trend_direction": "stable", "metro_trend_magnitude": "stable", "national_p50": 102503.0, "national_trend_direction": "up", "national_trend_magnitude": "moderate"}, {"role": "Network Engineer", "data_scope": "metro", "metro_p25": 73189.0, "metro_p50": 110155.2, "metro_p75": 129529.0, "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": "metro", "metro_p25": 116709.5, "metro_p50": 155759.0, "metro_p75": 175000.0, "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": 44467.0, "metro_p50": 52396.4, "metro_p75": 58389.0, "metro_trend_direction": "stable", "metro_trend_magnitude": "stable", "national_p50": 53129.0, "national_trend_direction": "down", "national_trend_magnitude": "moderate"}, {"role": "Cybersecurity Analyst", "data_scope": "metro", "metro_p25": 85336.25, "metro_p50": 99878.0, "metro_p75": 118331.0, "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": "metro", "metro_p25": 78630.0, "metro_p50": 114410.0, "metro_p75": 124578.75, "metro_trend_direction": "stable", "metro_trend_magnitude": "stable", "national_p50": 118149.8, "national_trend_direction": "stable", "national_trend_magnitude": "stable"}], "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": "November 2026", "files": {"html": "ny-nonmetropolitan-area/information-technology/2026-10.html", "pdf": "ny-nonmetropolitan-area/information-technology/2026-10.pdf"}, "published_at": "2026-11-03T08:27:20.858767+00:00", "report_html_url": "https://reports.wagescape.com/archive/v1/editions/ny-nonmetropolitan-area/information-technology/2026-10.html", "report_pdf_url": "https://reports.wagescape.com/archive/v1/editions/ny-nonmetropolitan-area/information-technology/2026-10.pdf"}