{"schema_version": 1, "id": "st-george-ut-msa/information-technology/2026-10", "product": "Labor Market Pulse", "metro": {"geography_id": 362, "label": "St. George, UT MSA", "slug": "st-george-ut-msa"}, "focus_area": {"key": "information_technology", "slug": "information-technology", "label": "Information Technology"}, "period": "2026-10", "public_after": "2026-10-01", "frozen_at": "2026-11-03T03:33:12.390549+00:00", "headline": "St. George security pay outpaces nation as state IT jobs shrink.", "headline_summary": "Metro Cybersecurity Analyst pay has climbed to $141,300 \u2014 32% above the $107,327 national median \u2014 even as Utah's information sector has lost jobs in every 2026 report.", "key_indicators": [{"label": "Metro unemployment rate", "value": "3.5%-3.6%", "context": "vs 4.1% national rate, August 2026"}, {"label": "Washington County job growth", "value": "4.0% YoY", "context": "~3,600 jobs added through August 2026"}, {"label": "Utah information-sector jobs", "value": "-2,300 YoY", "context": "Losses posted in every 2026 monthly report"}, {"label": "Cybersecurity Analyst pay gap", "value": "+32%", "context": "Metro $141,300 vs national $107,327"}], "takeaways": [{"headline": "Cybersecurity pay has decoupled from the national market here.", "body": "Metro Cybersecurity Analyst advertised pay sits 32% above the national median ($141,300 vs $107,327), a gap far wider than any other tracked IT role in this briefing. Current conditions suggest local scarcity, not just national AI-era demand, is driving this premium \u2014 a signal worth testing against actual time-to-fill data before setting next year's security budget."}, {"headline": "Systems Administrator pay is climbing fastest among infrastructure roles.", "body": "Metro Systems Administrator advertised pay rose significantly to $93,121, narrowing the gap with the $102,503 national median. Pairs with Utah's documented 15-20% two-year wage growth in DevOps and cloud infrastructure roles, suggesting infrastructure generalists are capturing some of the same scarcity premium long reserved for cloud specialists."}, {"headline": "Statewide information-sector losses mask metro-level resilience.", "body": "Utah's information sector has shed jobs in every 2026 monthly report, yet Washington County added 3,600 jobs and grew employment 4% over the year. IT leaders hiring locally may be insulated from the state's tech-sector contraction, but should verify whether that resilience reflects health care IT and support roles rather than core technology employment."}, {"headline": "Help Desk pay continues to soften even as unemployment stays low.", "body": "Metro Help Desk/IT Support pay fell moderately to $47,984, tracking a national decline to $53,129 despite a tight 3.5% local unemployment rate. Current conditions suggest employers are substituting AI-assisted tooling for entry-level support headcount rather than facing true labor scarcity in this role."}], "local_conditions": "Washington County's economy grew 4% year-over-year through August 2026, adding roughly 3,600 jobs while the metro unemployment rate held at 3.5% to 3.6%, well below the 4.1% national rate, signaling a labor market still tight for employers competing for talent.Statewide, information-sector employment has contracted in every monthly report of 2026, losing 2,300 jobs over the trailing year even as Washington County's broader economy keeps expanding \u2014 a divergence that puts local IT hiring in a different position than the sector headline suggests.", "implications": "Metro-wide job growth outpacing the state's shrinking information sector appears to reflect St. George's dependence on health care, tourism and retail rather than a traditional tech employment base, meaning local IT leaders are likely competing for talent against Salt Lake and Wasatch Front data-center buildouts rather than a deep local bench. Cybersecurity Analyst advertised pay locally ($141,300) now runs well ahead of the national median ($107,327), a signal that security roles here carry a scarcity premium employers will need to budget against regardless of remote-work competition. Consider evaluating whether security and infrastructure roles should be filled locally at a premium or sourced through regional or remote arrangements, given Utah's statewide information-sector contraction and the 700% data-center growth projected for the Salt Lake region by 2030.", "looking_ahead": [{"category": "Worth watching", "body": "Utah's information-sector job losses have persisted through every month of 2026; watch whether St. George's broader economic growth continues to offset this or whether metro IT postings begin tracking the statewide decline."}, {"category": "Emerging pressure point", "body": "Salt Lake region data-center expansion projected at 700% growth by 2030 could pull infrastructure and cloud talent north from Washington County, tightening local supply for DevOps and network engineering roles already commanding $115K-$200K statewide."}, {"category": "Early indicator", "body": "National tech layoffs have already exceeded 133,000 workers through late October, surpassing all of 2025; monitor whether any displaced talent, particularly from AI or cloud-adjacent roles, begins surfacing in the local candidate pool given St. George's relative affordability."}, {"category": "Potential inflection point", "body": "Metro Cybersecurity Analyst pay has moved sharply ahead of the national median; watch whether this premium holds through year-end budget cycles or compresses as more employers advertise for the role and supply catches up."}], "roles": [{"role": "Data Scientist", "data_scope": "metro", "metro_p25": 107215.0, "metro_p50": 132234.0, "metro_p75": 144447.5, "metro_trend_direction": "up", "metro_trend_magnitude": "moderate", "national_p50": 145881.0, "national_trend_direction": "stable", "national_trend_magnitude": "stable"}, {"role": "Systems Administrator", "data_scope": "metro", "metro_p25": 71078.0, "metro_p50": 93121.0, "metro_p75": 103277.0, "metro_trend_direction": "up", "metro_trend_magnitude": "significant", "national_p50": 102503.0, "national_trend_direction": "up", "national_trend_magnitude": "moderate"}, {"role": "Network Engineer", "data_scope": "metro", "metro_p25": 61221.0, "metro_p50": 105789.0, "metro_p75": 123230.75, "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": 116945.0, "metro_p50": 156143.6, "metro_p75": 170129.75, "metro_trend_direction": "up", "metro_trend_magnitude": "moderate", "national_p50": 154403.0, "national_trend_direction": "stable", "national_trend_magnitude": "stable"}, {"role": "Help Desk/IT Support Specialist", "data_scope": "metro", "metro_p25": 39061.0, "metro_p50": 47984.0, "metro_p75": 55500.0, "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": 116859.5, "metro_p50": 141300.0, "metro_p75": 144934.0, "metro_trend_direction": "up", "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": 107814.0, "metro_p50": 128618.0, "metro_p75": 139226.0, "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": "st-george-ut-msa/information-technology/2026-10.html", "pdf": "st-george-ut-msa/information-technology/2026-10.pdf"}, "published_at": "2026-11-03T08:30:57.861353+00:00", "report_html_url": "https://reports.wagescape.com/archive/v1/editions/st-george-ut-msa/information-technology/2026-10.html", "report_pdf_url": "https://reports.wagescape.com/archive/v1/editions/st-george-ut-msa/information-technology/2026-10.pdf"}