{"schema_version": 1, "id": "oh-nonmetropolitan-area/information-technology/2026-10", "product": "Labor Market Pulse", "metro": {"geography_id": 374, "label": "OH NONMETROPOLITAN AREA", "slug": "oh-nonmetropolitan-area"}, "focus_area": {"key": "information_technology", "slug": "information-technology", "label": "Information Technology"}, "period": "2026-10", "public_after": "2026-10-01", "frozen_at": "2026-11-03T03:25:43.752269+00:00", "headline": "Nonmetro Ohio IT pay falls as technician scarcity deepens.", "headline_summary": "Software Engineer and Network Engineer advertised pay dropped significantly in nonmetro Ohio even as the state posted its lowest unemployment rate since 1976 and a five-to-one technician shortage.", "key_indicators": [{"label": "Ohio unemployment rate", "value": "3.3%", "context": "August 2026, lowest since 1976 series start"}, {"label": "Ohio civilian labor force", "value": "5.86M", "context": "Down from 5.94M a year earlier"}, {"label": "Technician shortage ratio", "value": "5:1", "context": "Open technician jobs per qualified candidate, statewide"}, {"label": "Statewide WARN-affected workers", "value": "7,207", "context": "Down 47% vs. 2025 total"}], "takeaways": [{"headline": "Advertised pay is falling even as workers get scarcer.", "body": "Network Engineer, Software Engineer, and Data Scientist advertised pay all dropped significantly in the metro this month while national medians held stable or rose \u2014 a divergence that is consistent with employers capping offers while retaining the ability to fill seats. Treat local advertised rates as a lagging signal of employer caution and a limited read on how hard roles are to fill."}, {"headline": "Technician shortage is now a funded state problem.", "body": "Ohio's five-to-one open-technician-to-candidate ratio and the new JobsOhio Technician Path subsidy point to a structural gap state policymakers are now underwriting with cash, alongside workforce-board messaging. Organizations should evaluate whether infrastructure and support roles qualify for the 1:1 matching funds before defaulting to external recruiting at depressed advertised rates."}, {"headline": "Cybersecurity and project management pay softened despite national gains.", "body": "Cybersecurity Analyst and IT Project Manager advertised pay both declined locally (moderate magnitude) while national medians rose or held \u2014 a pattern that may reflect fewer large-scale local postings even as the sector shows broader national tightness. Benchmark these roles against regional data center and infrastructure buildout activity, using local ad volume as one input among several."}, {"headline": "Skilled-trades wage inflation is reshaping the IT infrastructure build-vs-buy math.", "body": "Data center electricians in high-demand Ohio markets report total compensation of $240,000-$280,000, dwarfing the state's $21.55 average IT hourly rate and pulling trades talent away from traditional support functions. Current conditions suggest hybrid or outsourced staffing for facilities-adjacent infrastructure roles may now be more economical than competing directly on trades wages."}], "local_conditions": "Nonmetropolitan Ohio enters November with the state's labor market historically tight \u2014 August's 3.3% unemployment rate was the lowest in the series since 1976 \u2014 even as the civilian labor force contracted by roughly 80,000 over the year, signaling labor supply constraints with demand holding steady. October's official county and nonmetro data won't post until November 20-24, but statewide signals (five open technician jobs per qualified candidate, JobsOhio's new $10,000-per-worker training subsidy) point to a structural skills shortage layered onto an already-thin rural talent pool.", "implications": "Advertised pay for Software Engineer, Network Engineer, and Data Scientist roles all moved down significantly against national medians this month, which is consistent with employers pulling back on aggressive external offers in a market where candidate supply is scarce but retention risk from national tech layoffs (133,417 through October 21) is comparatively low in nonmetro Ohio's smaller tech footprint. That gap between tightening labor supply and softening advertised pay suggests employers are leaning on internal development and state-subsidized training to fill infrastructure and security seats, ahead of competitive recruiting. Consider reviewing whether JobsOhio's Technician Path matching-fund program offsets the cost of building internal pipelines for systems administration and network roles that are increasingly uneconomical to recruit externally at posted rates.", "looking_ahead": [{"category": "Expected data release", "body": "ODJFS publishes October county and nonmetro unemployment and wage data November 20-24 \u2014 the first real read on whether the August labor-force contraction continued into fall. Hold headcount and compensation decisions reliant on local benchmarks until that release lands."}, {"category": "Emerging pressure point", "body": "TechCred's fiscal-year credential reimbursement budget is already exhausted, removing a subsidy IT leaders were using to offset upskilling costs. Watch whether the state replenishes funding mid-year or whether employers shift training costs fully onto internal budgets."}, {"category": "Worth watching", "body": "Statewide WARN filings are down 47% year over year, but manufacturing still accounts for the largest share of notices (23 of 64, 3,159 workers) \u2014 watch whether displaced manufacturing workers with adjacent technical skills (controls, automation, electrical) begin surfacing in nonmetro IT and infrastructure candidate pools."}, {"category": "Potential inflection point", "body": "JobsOhio's Technician Path program requires 1:1 employer matching funds; early adoption rates over the next two months will signal whether nonmetro employers see internal-build strategies as viable against continued advertised-pay softness."}], "roles": [{"role": "Data Scientist", "data_scope": "metro", "metro_p25": 85884.75, "metro_p50": 122902.8, "metro_p75": 153715.5, "metro_trend_direction": "down", "metro_trend_magnitude": "significant", "national_p50": 145881.0, "national_trend_direction": "stable", "national_trend_magnitude": "stable"}, {"role": "Systems Administrator", "data_scope": "metro", "metro_p25": 73415.0, "metro_p50": 86538.0, "metro_p75": 99147.75, "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": 70574.5, "metro_p50": 88924.0, "metro_p75": 101562.0, "metro_trend_direction": "down", "metro_trend_magnitude": "significant", "national_p50": 115757.0, "national_trend_direction": "up", "national_trend_magnitude": "moderate"}, {"role": "Software Engineer", "data_scope": "metro", "metro_p25": 96892.5, "metro_p50": 125000.0, "metro_p75": 143610.5, "metro_trend_direction": "down", "metro_trend_magnitude": "significant", "national_p50": 154403.0, "national_trend_direction": "stable", "national_trend_magnitude": "stable"}, {"role": "Help Desk/IT Support Specialist", "data_scope": "metro", "metro_p25": 40126.0, "metro_p50": 49500.0, "metro_p75": 57949.0, "metro_trend_direction": "down", "metro_trend_magnitude": "moderate", "national_p50": 53129.0, "national_trend_direction": "down", "national_trend_magnitude": "moderate"}, {"role": "Cybersecurity Analyst", "data_scope": "metro", "metro_p25": 76323.0, "metro_p50": 91872.4, "metro_p75": 99712.0, "metro_trend_direction": "down", "metro_trend_magnitude": "moderate", "national_p50": 107327.0, "national_trend_direction": "up", "national_trend_magnitude": "moderate"}, {"role": "IT Project Manager", "data_scope": "metro", "metro_p25": 88396.75, "metro_p50": 99915.0, "metro_p75": 106153.5, "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": "Ohio Department of Job and Family Services", "source_url": null, "statement": "Ohio unemployment fell to 3.3% in August 2026, lowest since 1976"}, {"source_name": "Ohio Department of Job and Family Services", "source_url": null, "statement": "Ohio civilian labor force contracted year over year"}, {"source_name": "Layoffs.fyi / tech layoff tracker", "source_url": null, "statement": "Tech sector layoffs exceeded 133,000 workers through Oct 21, 2026"}, {"source_name": "JobsOhio", "source_url": null, "statement": "Ohio has five open technician jobs per qualified candidate"}, {"source_name": "Industry wage reporting cited in Ohio IT labor market research", "source_url": null, "statement": "Data center electricians earn $240,000-$280,000 in high-demand markets"}, {"source_name": "Ohio Department of Job and Family Services", "source_url": null, "statement": "October 2026 ODJFS county data releases November 20-24"}], "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": "oh-nonmetropolitan-area/information-technology/2026-10.html", "pdf": "oh-nonmetropolitan-area/information-technology/2026-10.pdf"}, "published_at": "2026-11-03T08:27:32.167121+00:00", "report_html_url": "https://reports.wagescape.com/archive/v1/editions/oh-nonmetropolitan-area/information-technology/2026-10.html", "report_pdf_url": "https://reports.wagescape.com/archive/v1/editions/oh-nonmetropolitan-area/information-technology/2026-10.pdf"}