{"schema_version": 1, "id": "wausau-wi-msa/information-technology/2026-09", "product": "Labor Market Pulse", "metro": {"geography_id": 526, "label": "Wausau, WI MSA", "slug": "wausau-wi-msa"}, "focus_area": {"key": "information_technology", "slug": "information-technology", "label": "Information Technology"}, "period": "2026-09", "public_after": "2026-09-01", "frozen_at": "2026-10-09T13:19:02.742986+00:00", "headline": "Wausau's IT pay is splitting: engineers gain, security and admin fall behind.", "headline_summary": "Metro Software Engineer pay climbed to $139,510 even as Cybersecurity Analyst pay fell to $58,314 against a $106,790 national median, exposing a widening local-national gap in specialized IT compensation.", "key_indicators": [{"label": "Marathon County unemployment", "value": "2.7%", "context": "vs 4.1% national rate, August 2026"}, {"label": "Marathon County job change", "value": "-1,116 jobs", "context": "Q2 2025 to Q2 2026, despite low unemployment"}, {"label": "Cybersecurity Analyst pay gap", "value": "$58,314 vs $106,790", "context": "Metro median vs national median, Sept 2026"}, {"label": "Wisconsin IT WARN activity", "value": "56 notices / 3,914 workers", "context": "Down 7% YoY statewide, 2026 to date"}], "takeaways": [{"headline": "Cybersecurity pay gap with the nation has turned into a chasm.", "body": "Metro advertised pay for Cybersecurity Analysts sits at $58,314 versus a national median of $106,790 \u2014 a gap too wide to explain by cost of living alone. Local employers risk losing security hires to remote-first national employers unless pay bands are restructured around national, not metro, comparables."}, {"headline": "Systems administration is being priced out of the local market.", "body": "Metro Systems Administrator pay fell significantly to $75,820 while national pay rose to $101,168, reinforcing the national pattern of permanent demand compression for traditional infrastructure roles. Consider whether this signals an opportunity to shift routine admin work to managed services while reserving in-house headcount for hybrid cloud specialists."}, {"headline": "Software engineering is the one role still commanding real leverage.", "body": "Metro Software Engineer pay rose to $139,510, closing in on the $153,652 national median and bucking the downward trend seen in other IT roles. That convergence suggests Wausau employers are competing hardest \u2014 and spending accordingly \u2014 for engineering talent that can be deployed remotely, a sign the local premium for in-person engineering work is eroding."}, {"headline": "A shrinking labor pool is becoming the real headcount constraint.", "body": "Marathon County shed over a thousand jobs year-over-year even as unemployment stayed near 2.7%, consistent with Wisconsin's documented failure to attract working-age newcomers rather than a cooling economy. Headcount planning built on local sourcing assumptions may be increasingly unrealistic for specialized infrastructure and security roles."}], "local_conditions": "Marathon County's labor market stays structurally tight \u2014 unemployment near 2.7% and employment actually declined by 1,116 jobs between Q2 2025 and Q2 2026, a signature of a shrinking, aging labor pool rather than slack demand. Against that backdrop, the county board's move to commission a market wage study signals employers locally are recalibrating pay structures to stay competitive, even as statewide IT demand bifurcates sharply between commodity infrastructure roles and specialized cloud, data, and security talent.", "implications": "Wausau's falling Cybersecurity Analyst and Systems Administrator advertised pay \u2014 down significantly against rising national medians of $106,790 and $101,168 \u2014 looks less like softening demand and more like a local market unable to price specialized risk functions competitively, pushing that hiring toward remote or outsourced arrangements. With Wisconsin's structural population shortfall limiting external recruitment pipelines, retention economics for cloud, security, and senior engineering talent now outweigh recruitment economics. Organizations should evaluate whether locally advertised pay for security and systems roles is signaling genuine market weakness or a recruiting disadvantage masked by remote-work competition from national employers.", "looking_ahead": [{"category": "Worth watching", "body": "Marathon County's commissioned wage and benefits market study, directed by the county board this summer, could reset public-sector IT pay comparables that private employers use as informal anchors. Results may surface in Q4 budget cycles."}, {"category": "Emerging pressure point", "body": "Local Cybersecurity Analyst and Systems Administrator pay trends diverging sharply from national medians suggest growing reliance on remote or contracted talent for these functions. Watch whether local postings increasingly specify remote eligibility as a workaround."}, {"category": "Early indicator", "body": "National WARN filings from Amazon, Meta, Oracle, and Verizon are shedding tech workers broadly, but little of that displacement has reached Wisconsin filings (56 notices, 3,914 workers in 2026, down 7% YoY). Monitor whether any released specialized talent migrates toward Wisconsin remote roles."}, {"category": "Potential inflection point", "body": "Wisconsin's projected 43% growth in data scientist roles and 44% in computer research scientist roles signals a widening gap between soft overall hiring and intense competition for advanced technical skills. Infrastructure and support budgets may need reallocation toward these specializations before year-end planning cycles close."}], "roles": [{"role": "Data Scientist", "data_scope": "state_rollup", "metro_p25": 93382.0, "metro_p50": 123893.0, "metro_p75": 140000.0, "metro_trend_direction": "stable", "metro_trend_magnitude": "stable", "national_p50": 148250.0, "national_trend_direction": "up", "national_trend_magnitude": "moderate"}, {"role": "Systems Administrator", "data_scope": "metro", "metro_p25": 62665.25, "metro_p50": 75820.2, "metro_p75": 81329.0, "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": "state_rollup", "metro_p25": 74497.0, "metro_p50": 96670.6, "metro_p75": 110152.75, "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": "state_rollup", "metro_p25": 104000.0, "metro_p50": 139510.4, "metro_p75": 157927.0, "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": 39520.0, "metro_p50": 51138.2, "metro_p75": 64962.0, "metro_trend_direction": "stable", "metro_trend_magnitude": "stable", "national_p50": 53644.0, "national_trend_direction": "stable", "national_trend_magnitude": "stable"}, {"role": "Cybersecurity Analyst", "data_scope": "metro", "metro_p25": 57071.0, "metro_p50": 58313.6, "metro_p75": 63060.0, "metro_trend_direction": "down", "metro_trend_magnitude": "significant", "national_p50": 106790.0, "national_trend_direction": "up", "national_trend_magnitude": "moderate"}, {"role": "IT Project Manager", "data_scope": "state_rollup", "metro_p25": 95371.0, "metro_p50": 122314.0, "metro_p75": 131708.5, "metro_trend_direction": "up", "metro_trend_magnitude": "moderate", "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": "wausau-wi-msa/information-technology/2026-09.html", "pdf": "wausau-wi-msa/information-technology/2026-09.pdf"}, "published_at": "2026-10-09T14:37:47.670773+00:00", "report_html_url": "https://reports.wagescape.com/archive/v1/editions/wausau-wi-msa/information-technology/2026-09.html", "report_pdf_url": "https://reports.wagescape.com/archive/v1/editions/wausau-wi-msa/information-technology/2026-09.pdf"}