{"schema_version": 1, "id": "weirton-steubenville-wv-oh-msa/information-technology/2026-10", "product": "Labor Market Pulse", "metro": {"geography_id": 426, "label": "Weirton-Steubenville, WV-OH MSA", "slug": "weirton-steubenville-wv-oh-msa"}, "focus_area": {"key": "information_technology", "slug": "information-technology", "label": "Information Technology"}, "period": "2026-10", "public_after": "2026-10-01", "frozen_at": "2026-11-03T03:41:35.495520+00:00", "headline": "Weirton IT pay splits: security up, engineering down sharply.", "headline_summary": "Metro Cybersecurity Analyst pay rose to $102,518 near the $107,327 national figure, while Software Engineer pay fell to $109,124 against a stable $154,403 national median.", "key_indicators": [{"label": "Brooke County unemployment", "value": "5.3%", "context": "vs 3.4% Ohio, 4.1% U.S. national rate"}, {"label": "Jefferson County unemployment", "value": "4.2%", "context": "Down 1.3 pts YoY as of August 2026"}, {"label": "Software Engineer pay gap", "value": "-29%", "context": "Metro $109,124 vs national $154,403 median"}, {"label": "Ohio technician shortage ratio", "value": "5:1", "context": "Open jobs per qualified candidate, statewide"}], "takeaways": [{"headline": "Infrastructure and security pay is pulling away from support roles.", "body": "Systems Administrator, Network Engineer, and Cybersecurity Analyst advertised pay all moved up moderately this month while Help Desk pay fell significantly to $46,080, a severe discount to the $53,129 national median. Budget allocation is shifting toward roles that keep systems running and secure, and support staffing may face sharper retention pressure as a result."}, {"headline": "Software engineering pay gap with national market has widened sharply.", "body": "Metro Software Engineer pay sits roughly 29% below the stable national median of $154,403, a significant and widening local decline. Remote-capable engineers in this metro have little reason to accept local rates when national postings offer better terms, raising the case for remote-first hiring alongside local recruitment for this role."}, {"headline": "Thin local labor supply collides with statewide technician shortage.", "body": "Brooke County's 5.3% unemployment coexists with Ohio's reported five open technician jobs for every qualified candidate, suggesting the metro's unemployed population and the skills employers need are poorly matched. JobsOhio's Technician Path program offers up to $10,000 per worker for training, but requires 1:1 employer matching \u2014 a real cost that favors employers already committed to internal development."}, {"headline": "Cybersecurity pay strength signals a shift in defensive priorities.", "body": "Metro Cybersecurity Analyst pay rose to $102,518, moderately up and tracking close to the $107,327 national figure despite the metro's overall wage softness elsewhere. A security role holding pay parity with national market while engineering and support roles lag suggests local employers increasingly treat security staffing as non-negotiable even under budget pressure."}], "local_conditions": "Brooke County unemployment sits at 5.3% while Jefferson County, Ohio runs 4.2% \u2014 both well above the state average of 3.4% \u2014 pointing to a metro labor pool that is thin on skilled technical workers even as broader demand softens. Ohio's data center and technology construction boom is pulling skilled trades and infrastructure talent toward premium-paying projects elsewhere in the state, tightening the local supply available to Weirton-Steubenville employers competing for the same systems and network talent.", "implications": "Metro Software Engineer pay has fallen to $109,124 against a stable national median of $154,403 \u2014 a gap wide enough to signal that local employers are either downgrading role scope or losing the leverage to compete for mid-to-senior engineering talent against remote and hybrid postings from higher-paying metros. With Systems Administrator, Network Engineer, and Cybersecurity Analyst pay all climbing locally even as Software Engineer and Help Desk pay decline, infrastructure and security roles are absorbing the metro's limited compensation growth while support and build-heavy roles get squeezed. Consider reviewing whether current software engineering job descriptions still reflect the skill level required, since advertised pay this far below national median may be filtering out qualified candidates before they apply.", "looking_ahead": [{"category": "Early indicator", "body": "Watch whether Jefferson County's 4.2% unemployment rate moves further from the 1.3-point year-over-year improvement reported in August, since any reversal would tighten an already thin technical labor pool further."}, {"category": "Emerging pressure point", "body": "Ohio's TechCred reimbursement program has exhausted its budget halfway through the fiscal year, removing a low-cost upskilling option. IT leaders relying on credential subsidies to close skill gaps should expect to absorb more training cost directly through year-end."}, {"category": "Worth watching", "body": "National tech layoffs have already exceeded 133,000 workers for 2026, concentrated outside this metro. Track whether any displaced remote-capable engineering or security talent becomes available to local employers at more competitive rates than current postings suggest."}, {"category": "Potential inflection point", "body": "Software Engineer pay's significant local decline could reach a floor where remote hiring becomes the default approach. Organizations should evaluate whether current local postings are still attracting qualified applicants or simply going unfilled."}], "roles": [{"role": "Data Scientist", "data_scope": "state_rollup", "metro_p25": 111206.75, "metro_p50": 138400.0, "metro_p75": 156390.0, "metro_trend_direction": "stable", "metro_trend_magnitude": "stable", "national_p50": 145881.0, "national_trend_direction": "stable", "national_trend_magnitude": "stable"}, {"role": "Systems Administrator", "data_scope": "state_rollup", "metro_p25": 74692.5, "metro_p50": 93576.0, "metro_p75": 104235.5, "metro_trend_direction": "up", "metro_trend_magnitude": "moderate", "national_p50": 102503.0, "national_trend_direction": "up", "national_trend_magnitude": "moderate"}, {"role": "Network Engineer", "data_scope": "state_rollup", "metro_p25": 73340.0, "metro_p50": 104998.0, "metro_p75": 121552.0, "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": 109124.0, "metro_p50": 109124.0, "metro_p75": 109124.0, "metro_trend_direction": "down", "metro_trend_magnitude": "significant", "national_p50": 154403.0, "national_trend_direction": "stable", "national_trend_magnitude": "stable"}, {"role": "Help Desk/IT Support Specialist", "data_scope": "metro", "metro_p25": 32046.5, "metro_p50": 46080.0, "metro_p75": 47993.0, "metro_trend_direction": "down", "metro_trend_magnitude": "significant", "national_p50": 53129.0, "national_trend_direction": "down", "national_trend_magnitude": "moderate"}, {"role": "Cybersecurity Analyst", "data_scope": "state_rollup", "metro_p25": 82532.0, "metro_p50": 102518.0, "metro_p75": 118918.0, "metro_trend_direction": "up", "metro_trend_magnitude": "moderate", "national_p50": 107327.0, "national_trend_direction": "up", "national_trend_magnitude": "moderate"}, {"role": "IT Project Manager", "data_scope": "state_rollup", "metro_p25": 88076.0, "metro_p50": 111411.0, "metro_p75": 124800.0, "metro_trend_direction": "stable", "metro_trend_magnitude": "stable", "national_p50": 118149.8, "national_trend_direction": "stable", "national_trend_magnitude": "stable"}], "industry_snapshot": [], "citations": [{"source_name": "U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (via pre-researched metro notes)", "source_url": null, "statement": "Brooke County, WV unemployment rate"}, {"source_name": "U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (via pre-researched metro notes)", "source_url": null, "statement": "Jefferson County, OH unemployment rate and year-over-year change"}, {"source_name": "JobsOhio", "source_url": null, "statement": "Ohio reports five open technician jobs per qualified candidate"}, {"source_name": "Ohio TechCred Program", "source_url": null, "statement": "Ohio TechCred program budget exhausted mid-fiscal-year"}, {"source_name": "Layoffs.fyi (via pre-researched national IT notes)", "source_url": null, "statement": "133,417 tech employees laid off at 325 companies through Oct 21, 2026"}, {"source_name": "Advertised pay data provided for briefing", "source_url": null, "statement": "National Software Engineer median pay figure"}], "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": "weirton-steubenville-wv-oh-msa/information-technology/2026-10.html", "pdf": "weirton-steubenville-wv-oh-msa/information-technology/2026-10.pdf"}, "published_at": "2026-11-03T08:32:14.797603+00:00", "report_html_url": "https://reports.wagescape.com/archive/v1/editions/weirton-steubenville-wv-oh-msa/information-technology/2026-10.html", "report_pdf_url": "https://reports.wagescape.com/archive/v1/editions/weirton-steubenville-wv-oh-msa/information-technology/2026-10.pdf"}