{"schema_version": 1, "id": "pittsburgh-pa-msa/information-technology/2026-10", "product": "Labor Market Pulse", "metro": {"geography_id": 424, "label": "Pittsburgh, PA MSA", "slug": "pittsburgh-pa-msa"}, "focus_area": {"key": "information_technology", "slug": "information-technology", "label": "Information Technology"}, "period": "2026-10", "public_after": "2026-10-01", "frozen_at": "2026-11-03T03:28:45.329398+00:00", "headline": "Pittsburgh security pay slides as national rates climb.", "headline_summary": "Cybersecurity Analyst advertised pay fell to $93,500 in Pittsburgh while the national median rose to $107,327, even as metro unemployment held at a three-year low of 3.6%.", "key_indicators": [{"label": "Metro unemployment rate", "value": "3.6%", "context": "Third straight monthly decline; PA at 3.6%, US at 4.1%"}, {"label": "Metro Cybersecurity Analyst pay", "value": "$93,500", "context": "Down vs. national $107,327, up moderately"}, {"label": "Metro payroll change", "value": "-1,600 jobs", "context": "August-September 2026, despite falling unemployment"}, {"label": "Comcast Technology Center WARN", "value": "634 workers", "context": "Layoffs effective Dec. 31, 2026"}], "takeaways": [{"headline": "Cybersecurity pay is drifting backward locally while the nation pulls ahead.", "body": "Metro advertised pay for Cybersecurity Analyst fell to $93,500 even as national pay rose to $107,327, a $13,827 gap that did not exist as sharply in prior cycles. Remote-capable security talent in Pittsburgh now has a growing financial incentive to look outside the metro, raising retention risk for any employer still benchmarking against local-only data."}, {"headline": "Systems administration and network roles are quietly tightening.", "body": "Systems Administrator advertised pay climbed to $95,657 and Network Engineer pay to $115,355, both moving up moderately alongside national gains of similar magnitude. Convergence with national rates in these two roles suggests Pittsburgh employers are being forced to compete nationally for infrastructure talent even in a market with stalled net job growth."}, {"headline": "Help desk compensation is softening as entry-level demand cools.", "body": "Help Desk/IT Support Specialist pay declined to $49,722 locally, tracking a national decline to $53,129, consistent with information-sector hiring pullbacks and falling hire rates nationally. Softening entry-level IT pay may create near-term opportunity to rebuild support bench strength at lower cost, but risks a thinner pipeline into mid-level infrastructure roles later."}, {"headline": "Local payroll softness is not translating into IT talent abundance.", "body": "Metro job losses of 1,600 positions in September came largely from construction and government, sectors that rarely feed IT and security pipelines. IT leaders should read headline job losses as holding steady competition for technical talent, not as a signal of easing competition."}], "local_conditions": "Pittsburgh's unemployment rate held at 3.6% through August, its third consecutive monthly decline, even as the metro shed 1,600 jobs between August and September and local payrolls remain 600 positions below year-ago levels. Structural labor supply constraints \u2014 a workforce roughly 40,000 smaller than pre-pandemic alongside continued outmigration \u2014 are colliding with PNC's return to a five-day office mandate and sector-specific contraction in construction and government, producing a market where low unemployment coexists with soft net job creation.", "implications": "Tight local unemployment against flat-to-declining payrolls signals a market where IT leaders compete for a shrinking candidate pool, raising retention stakes for infrastructure and security staff who could otherwise be drawn into Pittsburgh's expanding healthcare and education sectors. Cybersecurity Analyst advertised pay falling locally to $93,500 while national pay rises to $107,327 suggests Pittsburgh employers risk losing specialized talent to remote roles paying national rates, a gap that favors retention investment for security functions. Consider reviewing cybersecurity and systems administration compensation against national advertised rates before assuming local figures reflect current market reality.", "looking_ahead": [{"category": "Worth watching", "body": "Comcast Technology Center's WARN filing for 634 workers effective December 31 is one of the largest tech-adjacent layoffs in the state this quarter. Watch whether released engineering, infrastructure, or support talent surfaces in the Pittsburgh candidate pool given Comcast's technology-center footprint."}, {"category": "Emerging pressure point", "body": "Cybersecurity Analyst advertised pay has moved in opposite directions locally (down) and nationally (up) this month. A continued split would widen the gap further and may force a compensation correction to prevent attrition into remote national roles."}, {"category": "Potential inflection point", "body": "PNC's five-day return-to-office mandate, effective since May, may be reshaping which IT candidates are willing to consider downtown-based infrastructure and security roles. Monitor whether other large Pittsburgh employers follow with similar mandates, which would affect remote-flexibility tradeoffs IT leaders use to compete on total rewards alongside base pay."}, {"category": "Early indicator", "body": "National data center job postings grew 20% in three months while tech-hub metros pull back hiring, a pattern that could favor secondary markets like Pittsburgh for infrastructure headcount if real estate and power costs remain competitive. Watch for early signs of data center or hybrid-infrastructure project announcements locally."}], "roles": [{"role": "Data Scientist", "data_scope": "metro", "metro_p25": 108987.25, "metro_p50": 130000.0, "metro_p75": 149027.75, "metro_trend_direction": "stable", "metro_trend_magnitude": "stable", "national_p50": 145881.0, "national_trend_direction": "stable", "national_trend_magnitude": "stable"}, {"role": "Systems Administrator", "data_scope": "metro", "metro_p25": 75738.0, "metro_p50": 95657.0, "metro_p75": 102442.0, "metro_trend_direction": "up", "metro_trend_magnitude": "moderate", "national_p50": 102503.0, "national_trend_direction": "up", "national_trend_magnitude": "moderate"}, {"role": "Network Engineer", "data_scope": "metro", "metro_p25": 86815.5, "metro_p50": 115355.0, "metro_p75": 125000.0, "metro_trend_direction": "up", "metro_trend_magnitude": "moderate", "national_p50": 115757.0, "national_trend_direction": "up", "national_trend_magnitude": "moderate"}, {"role": "Software Engineer", "data_scope": "metro", "metro_p25": 100615.0, "metro_p50": 131495.0, "metro_p75": 150000.0, "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": 41311.0, "metro_p50": 49722.0, "metro_p75": 55000.0, "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": 79150.0, "metro_p50": 93500.0, "metro_p75": 106250.0, "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": 78614.0, "metro_p50": 106027.6, "metro_p75": 122090.0, "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": "pittsburgh-pa-msa/information-technology/2026-10.html", "pdf": "pittsburgh-pa-msa/information-technology/2026-10.pdf"}, "published_at": "2026-11-03T08:28:19.111553+00:00", "report_html_url": "https://reports.wagescape.com/archive/v1/editions/pittsburgh-pa-msa/information-technology/2026-10.html", "report_pdf_url": "https://reports.wagescape.com/archive/v1/editions/pittsburgh-pa-msa/information-technology/2026-10.pdf"}