{"schema_version": 1, "id": "ok-nonmetropolitan-area/information-technology/2026-09", "product": "Labor Market Pulse", "metro": {"geography_id": 341, "label": "OK NONMETROPOLITAN AREA", "slug": "ok-nonmetropolitan-area"}, "focus_area": {"key": "information_technology", "slug": "information-technology", "label": "Information Technology"}, "period": "2026-09", "public_after": "2026-09-01", "frozen_at": "2026-10-09T13:17:04.610801+00:00", "headline": "Oklahoma nonmetro counties split 4.4 points on unemployment.", "headline_summary": "Love County's 7.0% unemployment towers over Dewey County's 2.6%, while metro Systems Administrator pay climbs significantly to $78,300 even as Cybersecurity Analyst pay slides to $77,940.", "key_indicators": [{"label": "County unemployment spread", "value": "4.4 pts", "context": "Love County 7.0% vs Dewey County 2.6%, May 2026"}, {"label": "Oklahoma unemployment rate", "value": "4.3%", "context": "vs 4.1% national rate, August 2026"}, {"label": "Firms planning no 2026 wage increase", "value": "33%+", "context": "up from 15% in 2023, Kansas City Fed"}, {"label": "Dewey County avg weekly wage", "value": "$1,478", "context": "highest of 74 smaller OK counties"}], "takeaways": [{"headline": "Systems Administrator pay is rising while Cybersecurity Analyst pay is falling.", "body": "Metro Systems Administrator advertised pay climbed significantly to $78,300 even as Cybersecurity Analyst pay dropped to $77,940 \u2014 a reversal of the national pattern where cybersecurity commands a $106,790 median. This may signal local employers are backfilling infrastructure gaps faster than they're building security capacity, a build-vs-buy signal worth testing against outsourced SOC pricing."}, {"headline": "Help Desk pay compression looks like a leading indicator, not noise.", "body": "Metro Help Desk pay fell significantly to $51,870 against a flat national median of $53,644, consistent with CompTIA and Motion Recruitment data showing AI-driven compression in commodity IT operations roles nationally. Nonmetro Oklahoma employers appear to be testing how far entry-tier support pay can fall before candidate supply dries up."}, {"headline": "County unemployment spread of 4.4 points complicates single-rate hiring plans.", "body": "Love County's 7.0% unemployment versus Dewey County's 2.6% means labor availability for infrastructure and support roles varies dramatically by county even within the same nonmetro designation. Headcount plans built on a single statewide 4.3% assumption risk under- or over-estimating local candidate pools depending on exact site location."}, {"headline": "Data Scientist pay gap to national median signals a sourcing decision, not a pay gap to fix.", "body": "Metro Data Scientist pay sits at $124,173 against a $148,250 national median \u2014 a 16% discount consistent with broader AI/ML talent scarcity in non-metro markets. Current conditions suggest remote-first sourcing or contractor arrangements may close capability gaps faster than local pay increases alone."}], "local_conditions": "Oklahoma's nonmetropolitan counties continue trading on a wide dispersion story \u2014 Love County's unemployment rate sits at 7.0% against Dewey County's 2.6%, while statewide unemployment drifted to 4.3% in August, above the 4.1% national rate. Weekly wages in 73 of 74 smaller counties remain below the national average even as Dewey's $1,478 average signals energy-sector wage strength is pulling select pockets of nonmetro Oklahoma upward while most lag.", "implications": "County-level wage dispersion this wide means a single metro-area compensation strategy will systematically misprice talent in either high-cost energy-adjacent counties or lower-wage rural ones, directly affecting whether infrastructure and support roles get filled locally or require remote/hybrid sourcing from Oklahoma City or Tulsa labor pools. Softening statewide wage intentions \u2014 over a third of Oklahoma firms now plan no 2026 raises per the Kansas City Fed \u2014 collide with Systems Administrator pay up significantly in the broader metro comparison set, suggesting organizations that freeze support-tier pay risk losing exactly the roles seeing the sharpest advertised increases. Consider reviewing county-level pay differentials before finalizing 2026 compensation bands for infrastructure and support hires sourced from nonmetro counties.", "looking_ahead": [{"category": "Worth watching", "body": "Google's $3 billion Stillwater data center project signals accelerating cloud infrastructure build-out near nonmetro Oklahoma; watch whether this pulls network engineering and infrastructure talent out of smaller-county employers over the next two quarters."}, {"category": "Emerging pressure point", "body": "Statewide professional and business services employment fell 2,200 jobs year-over-year, a sector that includes IT consulting and systems integration firms serving nonmetro clients. A continued decline may push nonmetro enterprises toward in-house hiring or larger managed-service vendors based in Oklahoma City or Tulsa."}, {"category": "Early indicator", "body": "Kansas City Fed survey data shows over a third of Oklahoma firms plan no 2026 wage increases, up sharply from 15% in 2023. Watch whether this freeze holds through Q4 hiring cycles or breaks for specialized infrastructure and security roles where advertised pay is still climbing."}, {"category": "Potential inflection point", "body": "Oklahoma's computer and mathematical occupations are projected as the second-fastest-growing occupational group statewide through 2034, per OESC, even as current AI adoption among Oklahoma firms remains cautious. A shift toward AI-as-substitute rather than complement could accelerate local build-vs-buy decisions faster than current hiring plans assume."}], "roles": [{"role": "Data Scientist", "data_scope": "metro", "metro_p25": 102485.0, "metro_p50": 124173.0, "metro_p75": 132101.0, "metro_trend_direction": "up", "metro_trend_magnitude": "moderate", "national_p50": 148250.0, "national_trend_direction": "up", "national_trend_magnitude": "moderate"}, {"role": "Systems Administrator", "data_scope": "metro", "metro_p25": 66503.0, "metro_p50": 78300.0, "metro_p75": 83042.0, "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": "metro", "metro_p25": 86062.0, "metro_p50": 102444.0, "metro_p75": 103310.75, "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": 93376.0, "metro_p50": 120636.2, "metro_p75": 138508.25, "metro_trend_direction": "stable", "metro_trend_magnitude": "stable", "national_p50": 153652.0, "national_trend_direction": "stable", "national_trend_magnitude": "stable"}, {"role": "Help Desk/IT Support Specialist", "data_scope": "metro", "metro_p25": 41036.5, "metro_p50": 51870.4, "metro_p75": 61289.0, "metro_trend_direction": "down", "metro_trend_magnitude": "significant", "national_p50": 53644.0, "national_trend_direction": "stable", "national_trend_magnitude": "stable"}, {"role": "Cybersecurity Analyst", "data_scope": "metro", "metro_p25": 71150.0, "metro_p50": 77940.0, "metro_p75": 84176.75, "metro_trend_direction": "down", "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": 82440.5, "metro_p50": 97790.0, "metro_p75": 126964.5, "metro_trend_direction": "stable", "metro_trend_magnitude": "stable", "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": "ok-nonmetropolitan-area/information-technology/2026-09.html", "pdf": "ok-nonmetropolitan-area/information-technology/2026-09.pdf"}, "published_at": "2026-10-09T14:34:15.782234+00:00", "report_html_url": "https://reports.wagescape.com/archive/v1/editions/ok-nonmetropolitan-area/information-technology/2026-09.html", "report_pdf_url": "https://reports.wagescape.com/archive/v1/editions/ok-nonmetropolitan-area/information-technology/2026-09.pdf"}