{"schema_version": 1, "id": "pensacola-ferry-pass-brent-fl-msa/information-technology/2026-09", "product": "Labor Market Pulse", "metro": {"geography_id": 399, "label": "Pensacola-Ferry Pass-Brent, FL MSA", "slug": "pensacola-ferry-pass-brent-fl-msa"}, "focus_area": {"key": "information_technology", "slug": "information-technology", "label": "Information Technology"}, "period": "2026-09", "public_after": "2026-09-01", "frozen_at": "2026-10-09T13:17:38.398929+00:00", "headline": "Pensacola's security and infrastructure pay falls as national rates climb.", "headline_summary": "Metro cybersecurity analyst pay dropped to $85,112 against a national median of $106,790, even as Escambia County unemployment held at 5.1% versus the national 4.1%.", "key_indicators": [{"label": "Escambia County unemployment", "value": "5.1%", "context": "vs 4.1% national, 4.5% Florida statewide"}, {"label": "Metro labor force change", "value": "-0.7% YoY", "context": "241,625 in labor force, down 1,808 over year"}, {"label": "Cybersecurity pay gap", "value": "$85,112 vs $106,790", "context": "Metro trails national median by ~20%"}, {"label": "Florida information sector jobs", "value": "-3,900 YoY", "context": "Sector weakness despite statewide IT demand"}], "takeaways": [{"headline": "Cybersecurity pay is falling locally while the national market heats up.", "body": "Metro advertised pay for cybersecurity analysts dropped significantly to $85,112 even as the national figure climbed toward $106,790, a gap of roughly 25%. That divergence is consistent with employers under-recognizing scarcity risk in a role where national demand (CompTIA ranks cybersecurity growth 346% above average) shows no sign of easing."}, {"headline": "Network engineering looks like the metro's most mispriced role.", "body": "Local advertised pay fell significantly to $88,284 against a national median of $114,400 \u2014 a near $26,000 spread. Given traditional infrastructure roles face structural demand compression nationally, this gap may reflect genuine local oversupply, but it also raises retention risk if remote-eligible engineers benchmark against national rates."}, {"headline": "Software engineering is the one role bucking the metro's soft-labor-market trend.", "body": "Advertised pay rose significantly to $122,445, narrowing the gap with the $153,652 national median even as the broader Escambia labor market stayed flat. Rising local demand for this role amid overall labor force contraction is consistent with employers competing harder for a shrinking qualified pool rather than riding a broader hiring wave."}, {"headline": "IT Project Manager pay parity with the national rate signals a seller's market for coordination talent.", "body": "Metro pay of $117,378 sits essentially even with the $117,530 national median \u2014 unusual in a metro where most IT roles trail national rates by double digits. Consider whether this reflects genuine scarcity of delivery-management talent locally or project complexity tied to military and federal contracting work concentrated in the area."}], "local_conditions": "Escambia County's unemployment rate held at 5.1% in August, nearly a full point above the national 4.1% rate, as the metro's labor force contracted 0.7% year-over-year and net job growth sits near flat at 700 positions added over twelve months. Growth has concentrated in professional and business services, which outpaced the statewide rate, while the broader metro economy shows little of the hiring momentum driving Tampa and Orlando's double-digit job gains.", "implications": "A metro where overall hiring is nearly stagnant but professional services growth outpaces the state average points to a bifurcated local IT labor pool \u2014 generalist infrastructure and support roles facing soft demand while specialized technical talent remains scarce enough to command premium pricing nationally. Significant local pay declines in network engineering, cybersecurity, and systems administration, set against rising national rates for the same roles, suggest Pensacola employers may be under-pricing specialized risk rather than finding a genuinely looser local market. Consider reviewing whether advertised pay for cybersecurity and network engineering roles reflects actual candidate scarcity or simply lags the national repricing already underway.", "looking_ahead": [{"category": "Emerging pressure point", "body": "Escambia County unemployment has held near 5% for two straight months against a statewide rate near 4.5%. Watch whether that gap widens or whether information-sector softness (Florida shed 3,900 information jobs year-over-year) is contributing to local tech talent availability."}, {"category": "Worth watching", "body": "Florida's minimum wage rises to $15/hour on September 30, with tipped wages following suit. This compresses the pay gap between entry-level service work and help desk/IT support roles already trending down locally ($47,901), which may complicate entry-level IT recruiting."}, {"category": "Potential inflection point", "body": "Significant local declines in network engineering and cybersecurity pay, set against national acceleration in both roles, suggest a repricing correction is overdue. Watch whether Q4 postings begin closing the gap, particularly as Navy Federal and federal contractors compete for security-cleared technical talent."}, {"category": "Early indicator", "body": "National WARN activity continues naming large employers including Amazon, Meta, and Oracle, but Florida layoffs remain down 29% year-over-year with no major IT-sector filings reported locally. Monitor whether national tech layoffs begin feeding remote-eligible candidates into the Pensacola pool."}], "roles": [{"role": "Data Scientist", "data_scope": "metro", "metro_p25": 97482.0, "metro_p50": 127625.0, "metro_p75": 127625.0, "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": 73828.0, "metro_p50": 96249.6, "metro_p75": 101031.0, "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": 69025.5, "metro_p50": 88283.8, "metro_p75": 94500.0, "metro_trend_direction": "down", "metro_trend_magnitude": "significant", "national_p50": 114400.0, "national_trend_direction": "up", "national_trend_magnitude": "moderate"}, {"role": "Software Engineer", "data_scope": "metro", "metro_p25": 96189.5, "metro_p50": 122445.2, "metro_p75": 140000.0, "metro_trend_direction": "up", "metro_trend_magnitude": "significant", "national_p50": 153652.0, "national_trend_direction": "stable", "national_trend_magnitude": "stable"}, {"role": "Help Desk/IT Support Specialist", "data_scope": "metro", "metro_p25": 40277.0, "metro_p50": 47901.0, "metro_p75": 50613.0, "metro_trend_direction": "down", "metro_trend_magnitude": "moderate", "national_p50": 53644.0, "national_trend_direction": "stable", "national_trend_magnitude": "stable"}, {"role": "Cybersecurity Analyst", "data_scope": "metro", "metro_p25": 81526.5, "metro_p50": 85112.0, "metro_p75": 93901.5, "metro_trend_direction": "down", "metro_trend_magnitude": "significant", "national_p50": 106790.0, "national_trend_direction": "up", "national_trend_magnitude": "moderate"}, {"role": "IT Project Manager", "data_scope": "state_rollup", "metro_p25": 90000.0, "metro_p50": 117377.6, "metro_p75": 129025.5, "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": "pensacola-ferry-pass-brent-fl-msa/information-technology/2026-09.html", "pdf": "pensacola-ferry-pass-brent-fl-msa/information-technology/2026-09.pdf"}, "published_at": "2026-10-09T14:34:42.506497+00:00", "report_html_url": "https://reports.wagescape.com/archive/v1/editions/pensacola-ferry-pass-brent-fl-msa/information-technology/2026-09.html", "report_pdf_url": "https://reports.wagescape.com/archive/v1/editions/pensacola-ferry-pass-brent-fl-msa/information-technology/2026-09.pdf"}