{"schema_version": 1, "id": "orlando-kissimmee-fl-msa/information-technology/2026-09", "product": "Labor Market Pulse", "metro": {"geography_id": 349, "label": "Orlando-Kissimmee, FL MSA", "slug": "orlando-kissimmee-fl-msa"}, "focus_area": {"key": "information_technology", "slug": "information-technology", "label": "Information Technology"}, "period": "2026-09", "public_after": "2026-09-01", "frozen_at": "2026-10-09T13:17:09.528369+00:00", "headline": "Orlando IT talent tightens even as metro unemployment climbs.", "headline_summary": "Metro unemployment rose to 4.6% while IT Project Manager pay jumped and Cybersecurity Analyst pay climbed to $90,520 \u2014 proof that broader labor slack isn't reaching specialized tech roles.", "key_indicators": [{"label": "Metro unemployment rate", "value": "4.6%", "context": "Up from 3.3% a year earlier (BLS, June 2026)"}, {"label": "Information sector employment", "value": "-3,900 jobs YoY", "context": "Statewide decline despite metro tech hiring gains"}, {"label": "Metro wage growth", "value": "8.3% YoY", "context": "vs 3.4% Florida inflation rate, July 2026"}, {"label": "Jobs-to-seeker ratio", "value": "1.4 jobs per seeker", "context": "Florida statewide; 0.7 unemployed per opening"}], "takeaways": [{"headline": "IT Project Manager pay is up significantly while Network Engineer pay falls.", "body": "Metro IT Project Manager advertised pay rose to a median of $130,218, outpacing the national figure, while Network Engineer pay dropped to $110,000 locally even as national rates climbed. This divergence is consistent with organizations funding delivery and governance roles tied to AI and cloud initiatives while deprioritizing traditional network infrastructure headcount."}, {"headline": "Cybersecurity pay is rising locally but still trails national levels sharply.", "body": "Metro Cybersecurity Analyst pay reached $90,520, up moderately, but remains nearly $16,000 below the national median of $106,790. Organizations benchmarking against national cybersecurity compensation data risk underestimating what it takes to retain analysts against remote-eligible national competition."}, {"headline": "A looser metro labor market masks a tighter IT talent segment.", "body": "Metro unemployment rose to 4.6% while information-sector jobs fell 3,900 statewide, yet specialized roles like Systems Administrator and Cybersecurity Analyst both show upward advertised pay movement. Broader applicant volume growth should not be read as reduced competition for scarce cloud, security, or AI-adjacent skills."}, {"headline": "Help Desk pay stagnation signals a role ripe for outsourcing review.", "body": "Metro Help Desk/IT Support median sits at $47,886 with no movement this month, tracking a national pattern of AI-driven compression in lower-tier support demand. Current conditions suggest evaluating whether commodity support functions are better suited to contract or managed-service models than permanent headcount."}], "local_conditions": "Orlando's labor market has loosened materially \u2014 unemployment climbed to 4.6% at midyear from 3.3% a year earlier, even as employment grew just 6,000 against a 17,000-person expansion in the labor force, giving employers more applicant depth than at any point since 2021. Against that backdrop, a 3,900-job statewide decline in the information sector contrasts sharply with 8.3% year-over-year wage growth metro-wide, suggesting IT-specific talent remains scarce even as the broader metro labor pool eases.", "implications": "Looser overall labor supply does not extend to specialized IT talent \u2014 cybersecurity and project management roles show continued upward pay pressure locally while commodity functions like network administration show softening advertised rates, a divergence that should shape where organizations fight for retention versus where they let attrition run its course. Florida's 0.7 unemployed persons per job opening statewide means specialized engineering and security talent still commands negotiating leverage despite the metro's rising jobless rate, making this a poor window to assume broad-based hiring leverage has shifted to employers. Consider reviewing headcount plans to separate roles facing genuine scarcity-driven pay pressure from those where a larger applicant pool now supports more conservative offers.", "looking_ahead": [{"category": "Worth watching", "body": "Florida's minimum wage rises to $15/hour on September 30, pushing up labor costs in adjacent administrative and entry-level IT support roles. Watch whether this compresses the pay gap between Help Desk Specialists and higher-tier technical roles, prompting retention pressure at the bottom of the IT pay scale."}, {"category": "Emerging pressure point", "body": "Information-sector job losses of 3,900 statewide, paired with continued WARN activity (L3Harris cut 63 Orlando positions in April), may release specialized talent into the local candidate pool. Monitor whether released cloud, security, or engineering talent shows up in applicant volume for open requisitions over the next two months."}, {"category": "Potential inflection point", "body": "Orlando business confidence fell to a two-year low in Q2 2026, with only 35% of surveyed firms confident in the national economy. Sustained caution could translate into further hiring-freeze decisions even as specialized IT roles continue showing wage pressure \u2014 watch for budget-driven headcount delays colliding with retention risk."}, {"category": "Early indicator", "body": "National data shows AI engineer pay up 9.2% year-over-year and senior platform engineers up 8.9%, trends not yet fully reflected in Orlando's advertised pay data for Data Scientist or Software Engineer roles, both currently flat locally. Watch for a lagged local catch-up as Florida's tech employment ranks fourth nationally for absolute gains."}], "roles": [{"role": "Data Scientist", "data_scope": "metro", "metro_p25": 81968.0, "metro_p50": 123896.0, "metro_p75": 136047.5, "metro_trend_direction": "stable", "metro_trend_magnitude": "stable", "national_p50": 148250.0, "national_trend_direction": "up", "national_trend_magnitude": "moderate"}, {"role": "Systems Administrator", "data_scope": "metro", "metro_p25": 75684.0, "metro_p50": 93556.0, "metro_p75": 102477.0, "metro_trend_direction": "up", "metro_trend_magnitude": "moderate", "national_p50": 101168.0, "national_trend_direction": "up", "national_trend_magnitude": "moderate"}, {"role": "Network Engineer", "data_scope": "metro", "metro_p25": 62400.0, "metro_p50": 110000.0, "metro_p75": 117578.0, "metro_trend_direction": "down", "metro_trend_magnitude": "moderate", "national_p50": 114400.0, "national_trend_direction": "up", "national_trend_magnitude": "moderate"}, {"role": "Software Engineer", "data_scope": "metro", "metro_p25": 104678.0, "metro_p50": 131555.6, "metro_p75": 145000.0, "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": 39520.0, "metro_p50": 47886.4, "metro_p75": 52484.0, "metro_trend_direction": "stable", "metro_trend_magnitude": "stable", "national_p50": 53644.0, "national_trend_direction": "stable", "national_trend_magnitude": "stable"}, {"role": "Cybersecurity Analyst", "data_scope": "metro", "metro_p25": 78199.0, "metro_p50": 90520.0, "metro_p75": 93695.0, "metro_trend_direction": "up", "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": 99758.25, "metro_p50": 130218.2, "metro_p75": 145222.0, "metro_trend_direction": "up", "metro_trend_magnitude": "significant", "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": "orlando-kissimmee-fl-msa/information-technology/2026-09.html", "pdf": "orlando-kissimmee-fl-msa/information-technology/2026-09.pdf"}, "published_at": "2026-10-09T14:34:25.021006+00:00", "report_html_url": "https://reports.wagescape.com/archive/v1/editions/orlando-kissimmee-fl-msa/information-technology/2026-09.html", "report_pdf_url": "https://reports.wagescape.com/archive/v1/editions/orlando-kissimmee-fl-msa/information-technology/2026-09.pdf"}