{"schema_version": 1, "id": "salinas-ca-msa/information-technology/2026-10", "product": "Labor Market Pulse", "metro": {"geography_id": 438, "label": "Salinas, CA MSA", "slug": "salinas-ca-msa"}, "focus_area": {"key": "information_technology", "slug": "information-technology", "label": "Information Technology"}, "period": "2026-10", "public_after": "2026-10-01", "frozen_at": "2026-11-03T03:31:02.214318+00:00", "headline": "Salinas IT pay falls behind national rates in security, infrastructure roles.", "headline_summary": "Cybersecurity Analyst pay dropped significantly to $121,500 locally while the national median climbed to $107,327, and Systems Administrator pay fell to $92,500 against a rising $102,503 national figure.", "key_indicators": [{"label": "Salinas MSA unemployment rate", "value": "5.5%", "context": "Down from 5.7% in August 2026"}, {"label": "Monterey County employment growth", "value": "+3.4% YoY", "context": "Largest gain among large CA counties, March 2026"}, {"label": "Local average weekly wage growth", "value": "1.5% YoY", "context": "vs 2.7% statewide, Q1 2026"}, {"label": "Cybersecurity Analyst pay divergence", "value": "$121,500 metro vs $107,327 national", "context": "Metro fell significantly; national rose moderately"}], "takeaways": [{"headline": "Cybersecurity pay is falling locally while the rest of the country pays up.", "body": "Salinas advertised Cybersecurity Analyst pay dropped significantly to a $121,500 median even as the national median rose moderately to $107,327 \u2014 a reversal of the usual premium pattern. Local employers risk losing security talent to remote-first roles paying national rates for the same skill set."}, {"headline": "Systems Administrator compensation looks mispriced against national demand.", "body": "Metro Systems Administrator pay fell significantly to $92,500 while national pay rose moderately to $102,503, widening the gap to roughly $10,000. Infrastructure and support roles tied to physical, on-site work are harder to backfill if advertised pay keeps lagging national trend lines."}, {"headline": "IT Project Manager pay gains may reflect project-based hiring.", "body": "Local IT Project Manager pay rose moderately to $129,285, outpacing the stable national median of $118,150 and reversing the metro's broader pattern of flat-to-declining advertised rates. This may suggest employers are willing to pay up for project leadership even while compressing pay on execution-level infrastructure and support roles."}, {"headline": "Agricultural labor tightness is leaving IT wages unaffected.", "body": "Monterey County's +3.4% year-over-year employment growth \u2014 the strongest among large California counties \u2014 is concentrated in agriculture, government and tourism, with technology seeing little of that gain. IT leaders should not expect broad metro labor tightness to lift advertised tech pay; role-specific national trends matter more here than local labor market headlines."}], "local_conditions": "Salinas MSA unemployment eased to 5.5% in September from 5.7% in August, with Monterey County posting the largest year-over-year employment gain among large California counties (+3.4%) as of March 2026, driven by agriculture's seasonal hiring cycle and continued strength in government and tourism payrolls. Local wage growth remains muted at 1.5% year-over-year through Q1 2026 \u2014 well below both state wage gains (2.7%) and CPI \u2014 reflecting a labor market still anchored by low-wage, seasonal industries, with tech-sector demand playing a limited role.", "implications": "Technical talent in Salinas competes against a thin local labor pool shaped by agriculture and tourism rather than a tech employment base, which means IT leaders here are effectively recruiting into a regional market with little competitive pay pressure from peer employers \u2014 but that advantage is eroding for specialized roles. Cybersecurity Analyst pay fell significantly here even as national rates climbed significantly, and Systems Administrator pay dropped significantly locally while national pay rose moderately \u2014 a divergence that signals Salinas employers may be under-pricing roles that are increasingly remote-competed against better-paying metros. Consider reviewing cybersecurity and systems administration pay against national advertised rates before further erosion pushes experienced staff toward remote roles based outside the metro.", "looking_ahead": [{"category": "Emerging pressure point", "body": "Systems Administrator and Cybersecurity Analyst pay have fallen significantly locally while national rates climb \u2014 watch whether this gap widens further over the next reporting cycle, which would increase remote-work defection risk for incumbent staff."}, {"category": "Worth watching", "body": "California's computer professional exemption threshold rises to $122,573.13 annually in January, a compliance deadline that affects any Salinas-based IT roles currently classified near that line regardless of metro-level pay trends."}, {"category": "Potential inflection point", "body": "Statewide computer systems design employment fell 4.7% year-over-year through September, and California logged 16,000-plus tech WARN cuts through July \u2014 any displaced Bay Area or Sacramento technical talent entering the Salinas candidate pool would ease sourcing pressure on infrastructure and security roles."}, {"category": "Early indicator", "body": "Monterey County's seasonal agricultural hiring typically peaks in Q4 \u2014 watch whether the metro's overall unemployment rate reversal (5.7% to 5.5%) holds into winter or reflects a temporary seasonal effect that reverses local labor supply assumptions for support-function hiring."}], "roles": [{"role": "Data Scientist", "data_scope": "metro", "metro_p25": 121433.0, "metro_p50": 137271.0, "metro_p75": 156000.0, "metro_trend_direction": "up", "metro_trend_magnitude": "significant", "national_p50": 145881.0, "national_trend_direction": "stable", "national_trend_magnitude": "stable"}, {"role": "Systems Administrator", "data_scope": "metro", "metro_p25": 84347.0, "metro_p50": 92500.0, "metro_p75": 107012.75, "metro_trend_direction": "down", "metro_trend_magnitude": "significant", "national_p50": 102503.0, "national_trend_direction": "up", "national_trend_magnitude": "moderate"}, {"role": "Network Engineer", "data_scope": "metro", "metro_p25": 100000.0, "metro_p50": 113758.0, "metro_p75": 125250.0, "metro_trend_direction": "down", "metro_trend_magnitude": "moderate", "national_p50": 115757.0, "national_trend_direction": "up", "national_trend_magnitude": "moderate"}, {"role": "Software Engineer", "data_scope": "metro", "metro_p25": 121253.0, "metro_p50": 151340.0, "metro_p75": 156077.0, "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": 42640.0, "metro_p50": 52706.0, "metro_p75": 60840.0, "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": 70000.0, "metro_p50": 121500.0, "metro_p75": 199534.0, "metro_trend_direction": "down", "metro_trend_magnitude": "significant", "national_p50": 107327.0, "national_trend_direction": "up", "national_trend_magnitude": "moderate"}, {"role": "IT Project Manager", "data_scope": "metro", "metro_p25": 118533.0, "metro_p50": 129284.6, "metro_p75": 139464.0, "metro_trend_direction": "up", "metro_trend_magnitude": "moderate", "national_p50": 118149.8, "national_trend_direction": "stable", "national_trend_magnitude": "stable"}], "industry_snapshot": [], "citations": [{"source_name": "California Employment Development Department", "source_url": null, "statement": "Salinas MSA unemployment rate at 5.5% in September 2026"}, {"source_name": "California Employment Development Department", "source_url": null, "statement": "Monterey County +3.4% YoY employment growth, largest among large CA counties"}, {"source_name": "Bureau of Labor Statistics", "source_url": null, "statement": "Salinas average weekly wages up 1.5% YoY in Q1 2026"}, {"source_name": "California Department of Industrial Relations", "source_url": null, "statement": "California computer professional exemption threshold rises to $122,573.13 in 2026"}, {"source_name": "Bureau of Labor Statistics", "source_url": null, "statement": "California computer systems design employment fell 4.7% YoY through September"}, {"source_name": "California WARN Act Notice Database", "source_url": null, "statement": "California logged 16,000+ technology WARN notice job cuts in first seven months of 2026"}], "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": "salinas-ca-msa/information-technology/2026-10.html", "pdf": "salinas-ca-msa/information-technology/2026-10.pdf"}, "published_at": "2026-11-03T08:29:25.684682+00:00", "report_html_url": "https://reports.wagescape.com/archive/v1/editions/salinas-ca-msa/information-technology/2026-10.html", "report_pdf_url": "https://reports.wagescape.com/archive/v1/editions/salinas-ca-msa/information-technology/2026-10.pdf"}