{"schema_version": 1, "id": "wichita-ks-msa/information-technology/2026-09", "product": "Labor Market Pulse", "metro": {"geography_id": 528, "label": "Wichita, KS MSA", "slug": "wichita-ks-msa"}, "focus_area": {"key": "information_technology", "slug": "information-technology", "label": "Information Technology"}, "period": "2026-09", "public_after": "2026-09-01", "frozen_at": "2026-10-09T13:18:52.880132+00:00", "headline": "Wichita IT pay splits: security and network up, software down.", "headline_summary": "Cybersecurity Analyst and Network Engineer pay rose significantly in Wichita this month while Software Engineer pay fell to $140,508 and Sedgwick County unemployment held at a tight 3.1%.", "key_indicators": [{"label": "Sedgwick County unemployment", "value": "3.1%", "context": "vs 4.3% metro-wide reading in June 2026"}, {"label": "Kansas unemployment rate", "value": "3.8%", "context": "Flat May\u2013August 2026, below 4.1% national rate"}, {"label": "KC-metro tech postings growth", "value": "+7.4% YoY", "context": "vs +1.6% national postings growth"}, {"label": "Kansas avg private hourly earnings", "value": "$32.98", "context": "+4.6% YoY, outpacing 4.1% Midwest inflation"}], "takeaways": [{"headline": "Network Engineer pay is repricing faster than the market realizes.", "body": "Metro median of $90,000 against a significant upward trend is closing the gap with the $114,400 national figure. Infrastructure hiring managers benchmarking against last year's postings risk underbidding for talent already fielding competing offers."}, {"headline": "Software development comp is cooling locally while AI roles heat up nationally.", "body": "Wichita Software Engineer pay fell to $140,508 even as national AI engineering roles post 9.2% YoY gains. This divergence suggests Wichita's software demand is tracking traditional enterprise needs rather than the AI buildout driving coastal and KC-metro markets."}, {"headline": "Cybersecurity Analyst gains look structural, not seasonal.", "body": "Local pay of $99,133 is up significantly, consistent with CompTIA's finding that cybersecurity job growth runs 346% above the national average. Treating this as a temporary spike risks losing analysts to metros and remote roles paying national median wages near $106,790."}, {"headline": "Help Desk compression strengthens the case for outsourced support.", "body": "A significant drop to $43,455 locally, well under the $53,644 national figure, suggests Wichita employers already see this function as commoditized. Current conditions suggest evaluating managed service arrangements for tier-1 support before committing to permanent headcount."}], "local_conditions": "Sedgwick County unemployment held at 3.1% in August against a metro-wide 4.3% reading in June, underscoring a split between a tight core-county labor pool and softer surrounding-area demand. Wichita's production-heavy economy, with manufacturing growth decelerating toward 0.2% in 2026, is colliding with a technology hiring cycle that remains comparatively hot \u2014 leaving IT leaders to compete for scarce specialized talent inside a metro where overall job creation is stalling.", "implications": "Divergence between flat or declining advertised pay for Software Engineers ($140,508, down) and IT Project Managers ($112,016, down significant) versus sharp gains for Network Engineers ($90,000, up significant) and Cybersecurity Analysts ($99,133, up significant) signals that Wichita employers are reallocating compensation budget toward infrastructure resilience and risk roles rather than general software delivery. Build-vs-buy decisions for commodity support functions look increasingly favorable to outsourcing given Help Desk pay down significant to $43,455, while retaining and defending comp for network and security specialists becomes the higher-stakes retention fight. Consider reviewing infrastructure and security compensation bands against the metro's upward trend before Q4 budget cycles lock in rates that may already be stale.", "looking_ahead": [{"category": "Worth watching", "body": "Sedgwick County's 3.1% unemployment versus the metro's 4.3% June reading suggests a bifurcated labor pool. Watch whether county-level tightness extends to IT-specific postings or remains concentrated in non-tech sectors."}, {"category": "Emerging pressure point", "body": "Kansas City tech postings growing nearly five times faster than the national rate creates a credible poaching corridor for Wichita-based network and security talent. Retention conversations with mid-career infrastructure staff may need to happen before an outside offer does."}, {"category": "Potential inflection point", "body": "IT Project Manager pay fell significantly to $112,016 even as the national figure rose moderately to $117,530. If this gap widens further, expect harder-to-fill PM requisitions as candidates default to remote roles paying national rates."}, {"category": "Early indicator", "body": "Kansas's own cloud migration of its Department of Labor systems signals state-level validation of cloud-first infrastructure. Private-sector IT leaders weighing on-prem versus cloud transitions may find this a useful reference point for internal business cases."}], "roles": [{"role": "Data Scientist", "data_scope": "metro", "metro_p25": 105613.75, "metro_p50": 127562.0, "metro_p75": 144921.75, "metro_trend_direction": "up", "metro_trend_magnitude": "moderate", "national_p50": 148250.0, "national_trend_direction": "up", "national_trend_magnitude": "moderate"}, {"role": "Systems Administrator", "data_scope": "metro", "metro_p25": 66480.0, "metro_p50": 72900.0, "metro_p75": 84448.0, "metro_trend_direction": "stable", "metro_trend_magnitude": "stable", "national_p50": 101168.0, "national_trend_direction": "up", "national_trend_magnitude": "moderate"}, {"role": "Network Engineer", "data_scope": "metro", "metro_p25": 70342.25, "metro_p50": 90000.0, "metro_p75": 96797.75, "metro_trend_direction": "up", "metro_trend_magnitude": "significant", "national_p50": 114400.0, "national_trend_direction": "up", "national_trend_magnitude": "moderate"}, {"role": "Software Engineer", "data_scope": "metro", "metro_p25": 109480.0, "metro_p50": 140508.0, "metro_p75": 162703.0, "metro_trend_direction": "down", "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": 35000.0, "metro_p50": 43455.0, "metro_p75": 49092.0, "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": 83266.5, "metro_p50": 99132.6, "metro_p75": 111650.0, "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": 92996.5, "metro_p50": 112016.0, "metro_p75": 134369.25, "metro_trend_direction": "down", "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": "wichita-ks-msa/information-technology/2026-09.html", "pdf": "wichita-ks-msa/information-technology/2026-09.pdf"}, "published_at": "2026-10-09T14:37:58.745658+00:00", "report_html_url": "https://reports.wagescape.com/archive/v1/editions/wichita-ks-msa/information-technology/2026-09.html", "report_pdf_url": "https://reports.wagescape.com/archive/v1/editions/wichita-ks-msa/information-technology/2026-09.pdf"}