{"schema_version": 1, "id": "tn-nonmetropolitan-area/information-technology/2026-09", "product": "Labor Market Pulse", "metro": {"geography_id": 435, "label": "TN NONMETROPOLITAN AREA", "slug": "tn-nonmetropolitan-area"}, "focus_area": {"key": "information_technology", "slug": "information-technology", "label": "Information Technology"}, "period": "2026-09", "public_after": "2026-09-01", "frozen_at": "2026-10-09T13:18:36.158158+00:00", "headline": "Columbia IT pay softens locally while Tennessee's talent pool shrinks.", "headline_summary": "Metro Systems Administrator pay fell to $83,711 against a national median of $101,168, even as Tennessee's labor force contracted by roughly 50,000 workers year-over-year.", "key_indicators": [{"label": "TN unemployment rate", "value": "3.4%", "context": "Unchanged Jul-Aug 2026, vs 4.1% national"}, {"label": "TN labor force change", "value": "-50,000 YoY", "context": "Workers exiting, not unemployment rising"}, {"label": "Sys Admin pay gap", "value": "$83,711 vs $101,168", "context": "Metro median vs national, both diverging"}, {"label": "Skilled-trades wage pressure", "value": "7-9% YoY", "context": "WIL Institute Observatory, Q2 2026"}], "takeaways": [{"headline": "Systems Administrator pay is falling locally while demand hasn't.", "body": "Metro median dropped to $83,711 against a national median of $101,168 and rising, a gap wide enough to invite remote poaching of on-prem talent. Retention budgets built on last year's local comparables likely understate what it now takes to hold this role."}, {"headline": "Cybersecurity and data roles show the sharpest metro-national divergence.", "body": "Data Scientist metro median fell to $128,830 while the national figure climbed to $148,250; Cybersecurity Analyst followed a similar pattern. Local demand hasn't disappeared \u2014 Tennessee computing occupations are still forecast to grow \u2014 so the divergence more likely reflects advertised-rate softening than falling need, a signal worth testing against actual time-to-fill."}, {"headline": "IT Project Manager pay is the outlier moving up, not down.", "body": "Metro median rose to a significant $115,409, outpacing most other IT roles in this market and tracking the national trend. Consistent with build-vs-outsource activity accelerating, as organizations lean on project leadership to manage vendor and managed-services relationships rather than expand permanent technical headcount."}, {"headline": "Labor force contraction, not softness, explains Tennessee's tight read.", "body": "State unemployment held at 3.4% even as total labor force fell by about 50,000 workers year-over-year, consistent with workers exiting rather than losing jobs. For IT leaders, that means fewer passive candidates available even where advertised pay appears to be cooling."}], "local_conditions": "Columbia's labor market sits inside a Tennessee environment holding at 3.4% unemployment even as the state's labor force contracted by roughly 50,000 workers year-over-year, suggesting fewer active candidates rather than a cooling economy. Statewide skilled-trades scarcity readings of 76/100 and wage growth of 7-9% in constrained trades point to localized tightness that likely extends to IT infrastructure and field-support roles competing for the same technically skilled labor pool.", "implications": "Shrinking labor force participation alongside steady unemployment signals a structurally thinner candidate pool for infrastructure and support roles, while advertised pay for Systems Administrator ($83,711) and Cybersecurity Analyst ($88,621) locally trail national medians by double digits, widening the gap competitors can exploit through remote hiring. Build-vs-buy decisions tilt further toward managed services for commodity IT functions given 57% of Tennessee executives report difficulty finding right-skill IT talent, freeing internal headcount for modernization work tied to cloud and security. Consider reviewing whether current on-prem and support-tier compensation reflects national remote-hire competition rather than local historical norms.", "looking_ahead": [{"category": "Worth watching", "body": "TikTok's Oct. 5 Nashville office closure affects roughly 250 workers and could release tech-adjacent talent into the broader Tennessee labor pool; watch whether any land in Columbia-area hybrid or remote roles over the next two pay cycles."}, {"category": "Emerging pressure point", "body": "Metro advertised pay for Systems Administrator and Cybersecurity Analyst is falling even as national rates climb, a divergence that typically narrows either through local pay corrections or accelerated attrition to remote national employers."}, {"category": "Early indicator", "body": "Statewide skilled-trades wage growth of 7-9% year-over-year suggests infrastructure and field-support compensation pressure may be building faster than general advertised-rate data currently shows for this metro."}, {"category": "Potential inflection point", "body": "National IT headcount surveys show 78% of tech leaders planning permanent increases alongside 66% expecting more contract use \u2014 a split strategy worth testing locally as managed-services adoption grows amid Tennessee's reported IT skills gap."}], "roles": [{"role": "Data Scientist", "data_scope": "metro", "metro_p25": 108843.0, "metro_p50": 128830.4, "metro_p75": 138059.0, "metro_trend_direction": "down", "metro_trend_magnitude": "significant", "national_p50": 148250.0, "national_trend_direction": "up", "national_trend_magnitude": "moderate"}, {"role": "Systems Administrator", "data_scope": "metro", "metro_p25": 70094.0, "metro_p50": 83710.8, "metro_p75": 98635.0, "metro_trend_direction": "down", "metro_trend_magnitude": "moderate", "national_p50": 101168.0, "national_trend_direction": "up", "national_trend_magnitude": "moderate"}, {"role": "Network Engineer", "data_scope": "metro", "metro_p25": 74019.0, "metro_p50": 95170.0, "metro_p75": 100488.0, "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": 103196.5, "metro_p50": 135446.0, "metro_p75": 146077.0, "metro_trend_direction": "up", "metro_trend_magnitude": "moderate", "national_p50": 153652.0, "national_trend_direction": "stable", "national_trend_magnitude": "stable"}, {"role": "Help Desk/IT Support Specialist", "data_scope": "metro", "metro_p25": 39197.75, "metro_p50": 48952.0, "metro_p75": 63159.75, "metro_trend_direction": "down", "metro_trend_magnitude": "significant", "national_p50": 53644.0, "national_trend_direction": "stable", "national_trend_magnitude": "stable"}, {"role": "Cybersecurity Analyst", "data_scope": "metro", "metro_p25": 72029.0, "metro_p50": 88621.2, "metro_p75": 99840.0, "metro_trend_direction": "down", "metro_trend_magnitude": "moderate", "national_p50": 106790.0, "national_trend_direction": "up", "national_trend_magnitude": "moderate"}, {"role": "IT Project Manager", "data_scope": "metro", "metro_p25": 102300.0, "metro_p50": 115409.0, "metro_p75": 117315.0, "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": "tn-nonmetropolitan-area/information-technology/2026-09.html", "pdf": "tn-nonmetropolitan-area/information-technology/2026-09.pdf"}, "published_at": "2026-10-09T14:37:04.921975+00:00", "report_html_url": "https://reports.wagescape.com/archive/v1/editions/tn-nonmetropolitan-area/information-technology/2026-09.html", "report_pdf_url": "https://reports.wagescape.com/archive/v1/editions/tn-nonmetropolitan-area/information-technology/2026-09.pdf"}