{"schema_version": 1, "id": "sioux-city-ia-ne-sd-msa/information-technology/2026-09", "product": "Labor Market Pulse", "metro": {"geography_id": 354, "label": "Sioux City, IA-NE-SD MSA", "slug": "sioux-city-ia-ne-sd-msa"}, "focus_area": {"key": "information_technology", "slug": "information-technology", "label": "Information Technology"}, "period": "2026-09", "public_after": "2026-09-01", "frozen_at": "2026-10-09T13:18:27.715457+00:00", "headline": "Sioux City IT pay splits sharply: security up, networking down.", "headline_summary": "Systems Administrator pay rose to a metro median of $92,892 and Cybersecurity Analyst pay to $101,146, even as Network Engineer pay fell to $72,500 against a rising $114,400 national median.", "key_indicators": [{"label": "Metro unemployment rate", "value": "3.2%", "context": "Held through June 2026, down 0.1pt YoY"}, {"label": "Metro nonfarm employment", "value": "-1.2%", "context": "YoY decline through February 2026"}, {"label": "Systems Administrator pay growth", "value": "$92,892", "context": "Up significantly, above $101,168 national"}, {"label": "Network Engineer pay growth", "value": "$72,500", "context": "Down significantly vs rising $114,400 national"}], "takeaways": [{"headline": "Systems Administrator pay is outrunning the national trend.", "body": "Metro median advertised pay of $92,892 is rising significantly and now sits well above the $101,168 national median's growth pace. Local employers appear to be bidding up this role specifically, which may reflect unfilled vacancies rather than a broad compensation reset \u2014 worth confirming before adjusting ranges metro-wide."}, {"headline": "Network Engineer pay decline breaks from the national story.", "body": "Metro median pay fell significantly to $72,500 even as national pay rose to $114,400, a gap wide enough to suggest local employers are deprioritizing in-house network roles. This is consistent with national build-vs-buy dynamics favoring managed infrastructure services over permanent network staff."}, {"headline": "IT Project Manager pay now exceeds the national median locally.", "body": "Metro advertised pay of $123,689 has moved significantly above the $117,530 national figure, an unusual inversion for this metro. Rising project management pay amid flat overall metro employment may signal employers investing in execution capacity for cloud migration or AI-adoption initiatives rather than expanding headcount broadly."}, {"headline": "Help Desk pay softness tracks a thinning entry-level pipeline.", "body": "Metro Help Desk pay fell moderately to $44,698 while national AI-driven disruption is compressing entry-level IT roles generally. Combined with Iowa's documented 'job hugging' trend limiting junior turnover, Sioux City employers may find commodity support roles increasingly difficult to fill despite softer pay, not easier."}], "local_conditions": "Sioux City MSA unemployment sat at 3.2% through June, but total nonfarm employment fell 1.2% year-over-year through February \u2014 a divergence that points to shrinking labor force participation rather than hiring strength driving the low rate. Manufacturing posted modest gains and government employment grew 3.4% year-over-year, while leisure and hospitality continued contracting, suggesting the metro's limited job growth is concentrated in sectors with little direct IT hiring exposure.", "implications": "A metro where headcount is flat-to-declining but Systems Administrator and Cybersecurity Analyst pay are both rising sharply signals employers competing hard for a shrinking pool of specialized talent rather than broad-based hiring expansion. Network Engineer pay falling locally while climbing nationally suggests Sioux City employers may be deprioritizing in-house network infrastructure roles in favor of managed services or cloud migration \u2014 consistent with national build-vs-buy shifts toward outsourced non-core infrastructure. Consider reviewing whether network and support function headcount should shift toward contract or outsourced models while reserving permanent budget increases for cybersecurity and systems administration roles showing genuine local wage pressure.", "looking_ahead": [{"category": "Expected", "body": "September MSA employment data from BLS should publish in early October, finally clarifying whether the 1.2% year-over-year employment decline through February has stabilized or deepened. This will matter directly for whether Sioux City IT headcount planning should assume continued labor tightness or early slack."}, {"category": "Emerging pressure point", "body": "Iowa's statewide tech employment grew just 1.5% in 2026 after a flat 2025, while median Iowa tech wages sit at $91,677 \u2014 watch whether Sioux City's Systems Administrator and Cybersecurity Analyst pay gains persist or plateau as the broader state market cools."}, {"category": "Worth watching", "body": "Iowa's new Career Training Physical Expansion Grants for apprenticeships, launched this month, could begin feeding entry-level technical talent into the Siouxland pipeline over the next two quarters. Watch whether this eases the junior IT support shortage flagged by weak Help Desk pay growth."}, {"category": "Potential inflection point", "body": "National WARN filings continue featuring large employers like Oracle, Verizon and Amazon, while Iowa's own WARN activity dropped 58% year-over-year. Monitor whether any released specialized talent \u2014 cloud, security, DevOps \u2014 begins surfacing in the regional candidate pool, which could temporarily ease build-vs-buy pressure on specialized hires."}], "roles": [{"role": "Data Scientist", "data_scope": "metro", "metro_p25": 77750.0, "metro_p50": 83781.0, "metro_p75": 137625.25, "metro_trend_direction": "up", "metro_trend_magnitude": "significant", "national_p50": 148250.0, "national_trend_direction": "up", "national_trend_magnitude": "moderate"}, {"role": "Systems Administrator", "data_scope": "metro", "metro_p25": 68449.5, "metro_p50": 92892.0, "metro_p75": 124023.0, "metro_trend_direction": "up", "metro_trend_magnitude": "significant", "national_p50": 101168.0, "national_trend_direction": "up", "national_trend_magnitude": "moderate"}, {"role": "Network Engineer", "data_scope": "metro", "metro_p25": 69912.0, "metro_p50": 72500.0, "metro_p75": 89251.0, "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": 94432.0, "metro_p50": 136967.6, "metro_p75": 167478.5, "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": 37338.0, "metro_p50": 44698.0, "metro_p75": 46776.25, "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": "state_rollup", "metro_p25": 81688.75, "metro_p50": 101145.6, "metro_p75": 121695.0, "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": 108491.0, "metro_p50": 123689.0, "metro_p75": 126891.0, "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": "sioux-city-ia-ne-sd-msa/information-technology/2026-09.html", "pdf": "sioux-city-ia-ne-sd-msa/information-technology/2026-09.pdf"}, "published_at": "2026-10-09T14:36:26.403760+00:00", "report_html_url": "https://reports.wagescape.com/archive/v1/editions/sioux-city-ia-ne-sd-msa/information-technology/2026-09.html", "report_pdf_url": "https://reports.wagescape.com/archive/v1/editions/sioux-city-ia-ne-sd-msa/information-technology/2026-09.pdf"}