{"schema_version": 1, "id": "rochester-mn-msa/information-technology/2026-09", "product": "Labor Market Pulse", "metro": {"geography_id": 448, "label": "Rochester, MN MSA", "slug": "rochester-mn-msa"}, "focus_area": {"key": "information_technology", "slug": "information-technology", "label": "Information Technology"}, "period": "2026-09", "public_after": "2026-09-01", "frozen_at": "2026-10-09T13:17:57.550174+00:00", "headline": "Rochester IT pay splits: security premiums rise as admin roles fall.", "headline_summary": "Cybersecurity Analyst pay hit a $160,072 metro median \u2014 50% above the national figure \u2014 while Systems Administrator pay dropped to $80,000 even as the national median climbed to $101,168.", "key_indicators": [{"label": "Olmsted County wage growth", "value": "15.3% YoY", "context": "Largest gain among MN's 8 largest counties"}, {"label": "Cybersecurity Analyst pay premium", "value": "$160,072 metro", "context": "vs $106,790 national median"}, {"label": "Systems Administrator pay decline", "value": "$80,000 metro", "context": "vs $101,168 national median, up nationally"}, {"label": "MN labor-force participation", "value": "66.9%", "context": "Down from 68.1% a year ago"}], "takeaways": [{"headline": "Systems Administrator pay is diverging sharply from the national trend.", "body": "Metro median pay fell to $80,000 even as the national figure climbed to $101,168, a gap wide enough to suggest local employers are deprioritizing this role or shifting it toward contract and managed-service arrangements. Treat this as a signal to reassess whether in-house generalist infrastructure staffing still makes sense locally."}, {"headline": "Cybersecurity premiums in Rochester now outpace the national market.", "body": "A $160,072 metro median against $106,790 nationally is a significant inversion of the usual metro discount pattern, consistent with intense local competition for a thin regional security talent pool. Budget planning should treat this premium as durable rather than temporary given statewide cloud-security hiring pressure."}, {"headline": "Wage growth is concentrated, not broad, across the Rochester workforce.", "body": "Olmsted County's 15.3% average weekly wage increase outpaced every other large Minnesota county even as overall metro employment stayed flat, suggesting gains are clustering in specialized roles rather than lifting pay broadly. IT leaders should expect uneven pressure across functions rather than a uniform compensation adjustment."}, {"headline": "Shrinking labor-force participation is quietly tightening the hiring pipeline.", "body": "Minnesota's participation rate has declined every month in 2026, down to 66.9% from 68.1% a year ago, a trend DEED links partly to demographic aging and reduced inbound migration. Fewer available workers statewide compounds Rochester's already concentrated employer base, reinforcing the case for build-vs-buy decisions on commodity IT functions."}], "local_conditions": "Rochester's labor market cooled in August, with unemployment stagnant year-over-year even as Olmsted County posted the steepest average weekly wage growth \u2014 15.3% \u2014 among Minnesota's largest counties, a divergence suggesting wage gains are concentrated rather than broad-based. Mayo Clinic's continued anchor role alongside a shrinking statewide labor-force participation rate (66.9%, down from 68.1% a year earlier) is tightening the local talent pool even as headline job growth flattens.", "implications": "Flat local employment combined with outsized wage growth points to a bifurcated market: core, hard-to-replace skill sets are commanding sharp premiums while general hiring volume stalls, a pattern that complicates flat-headcount budget assumptions for 2027 planning. Systems Administrator pay falling to a $80,000 metro median against a rising $101,168 national figure signals commodity infrastructure roles are losing local pricing power, while Cybersecurity Analyst pay rising to $160,072 \u2014 well above the $106,790 national median \u2014 suggests Rochester employers are bidding aggressively for scarce security talent rather than relying on open-market supply. Consider evaluating outsourced or managed-service options for systems administration and help desk functions while reserving direct-hire budget increases for cybersecurity and cloud architecture roles where local premiums indicate genuine scarcity.", "looking_ahead": [{"category": "Worth watching", "body": "Watch whether Rochester's flat employment trend through September extends into Q4, which would confirm a genuine cooling rather than a one-month anomaly. A continued stall would support holding headcount flat on general IT roles while reserving growth budget for security and cloud specialists."}, {"category": "Emerging pressure point", "body": "Minnesota's statewide labor-force participation decline has run for eight consecutive months; a reversal or further drop will shape how competitive Rochester's candidate pool remains for infrastructure and support roles. Persistent decline strengthens the case for expanding remote or contract sourcing beyond the metro."}, {"category": "Early indicator", "body": "Minnesota's 140 WARN notices in 2026 remain far below 2025 levels, but national WARN activity from firms like Amazon, Meta and Oracle has stayed elevated. Any uptick in Minnesota tech-sector filings over the next two months would be a meaningful signal for local candidate supply in cloud and security roles."}, {"category": "Potential inflection point", "body": "Statewide IT job postings are projected to grow 15% through 2032, but near-term hiring freezes tied to budget constraints are already surfacing nationally. Rochester IT leaders should monitor whether local postings for Systems Administrator and Help Desk roles continue softening, which would validate a shift toward outsourcing these functions."}], "roles": [{"role": "Data Scientist", "data_scope": "metro", "metro_p25": 90501.0, "metro_p50": 123843.0, "metro_p75": 156769.0, "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": 74611.0, "metro_p50": 80000.0, "metro_p75": 85529.5, "metro_trend_direction": "down", "metro_trend_magnitude": "significant", "national_p50": 101168.0, "national_trend_direction": "up", "national_trend_magnitude": "moderate"}, {"role": "Network Engineer", "data_scope": "metro", "metro_p25": 114400.0, "metro_p50": 126420.0, "metro_p75": 145600.0, "metro_trend_direction": "stable", "metro_trend_magnitude": "stable", "national_p50": 114400.0, "national_trend_direction": "up", "national_trend_magnitude": "moderate"}, {"role": "Software Engineer", "data_scope": "metro", "metro_p25": 78066.75, "metro_p50": 135637.0, "metro_p75": 159000.0, "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": 44720.0, "metro_p50": 56160.0, "metro_p75": 65000.0, "metro_trend_direction": "up", "metro_trend_magnitude": "moderate", "national_p50": 53644.0, "national_trend_direction": "stable", "national_trend_magnitude": "stable"}, {"role": "Cybersecurity Analyst", "data_scope": "metro", "metro_p25": 116948.0, "metro_p50": 160072.0, "metro_p75": 164548.0, "metro_trend_direction": "up", "metro_trend_magnitude": "significant", "national_p50": 106790.0, "national_trend_direction": "up", "national_trend_magnitude": "moderate"}, {"role": "IT Project Manager", "data_scope": "metro", "metro_p25": 79832.0, "metro_p50": 109985.2, "metro_p75": 119600.0, "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": "rochester-mn-msa/information-technology/2026-09.html", "pdf": "rochester-mn-msa/information-technology/2026-09.pdf"}, "published_at": "2026-10-09T14:35:29.826872+00:00", "report_html_url": "https://reports.wagescape.com/archive/v1/editions/rochester-mn-msa/information-technology/2026-09.html", "report_pdf_url": "https://reports.wagescape.com/archive/v1/editions/rochester-mn-msa/information-technology/2026-09.pdf"}