{"schema_version": 1, "id": "wy-nonmetropolitan-area/information-technology/2026-09", "product": "Labor Market Pulse", "metro": {"geography_id": 527, "label": "WY NONMETROPOLITAN AREA", "slug": "wy-nonmetropolitan-area"}, "focus_area": {"key": "information_technology", "slug": "information-technology", "label": "Information Technology"}, "period": "2026-09", "public_after": "2026-09-01", "frozen_at": "2026-10-09T13:18:43.102172+00:00", "headline": "Wyoming nonmetro IT: fewer jobs, higher pay, trapped workforce.", "headline_summary": "Wyoming nonmetro unemployment sits at a tight 3.0% and quits have fallen to a decade-low 2.1%, even as Network Engineer advertised pay climbed to $117,015 and Help Desk pay dropped to $50,458 \u2014 a market rewarding scarce infrastructure skills while commodity support erodes.", "key_indicators": [{"label": "Nonmetro quits rate", "value": "2.1%", "context": "Decade low; signals workforce immobility, not retention strength"}, {"label": "Wyoming unemployment rate", "value": "3.0%", "context": "vs 4.1% U.S.; Teton Co. 1.8%, Niobrara Co. 4.0%"}, {"label": "Statewide average IT wage", "value": "$45,322/yr", "context": "Well below national cybersecurity avg of $191.7K"}, {"label": "Initial UI claims, August 2026", "value": "855", "context": "2nd-fewest monthly claims since 2007"}], "takeaways": [{"headline": "Low quits rate reads as entrapment, not loyalty.", "body": "A 2.1% quits rate \u2014 a decade low \u2014 alongside 3.0% unemployment suggests workers are staying in roles for lack of comparable local alternatives rather than genuine satisfaction. Expect pent-up attrition risk once remote or relocation options widen the candidate's opportunity set."}, {"headline": "Help Desk pay collapse signals the support tier is being outsourced in practice, if not in name.", "body": "Metro Help Desk advertised pay fell significantly to $50,458 against a stable $53,644 national median, even as Network Engineer pay jumped to $117,015. Employers appear to be redirecting budget from commodity support toward infrastructure roles that are harder to backfill locally."}, {"headline": "Project management premium may reflect scarcity of delivery leadership, not just demand.", "body": "IT Project Manager advertised pay rose significantly to $126,292, well above the $117,530 national median. In a thin nonmetro talent market, this premium likely compensates for the difficulty of finding candidates who can run distributed or hybrid-cloud initiatives without deep local bench strength."}, {"headline": "Information-sector job losses complicate any case for in-house scaling.", "body": "Wyoming's information sector posted the steepest year-over-year employment decline of any industry even as statewide wages grew 3.7%. Rising pay against falling headcount is consistent with employers paying more to retain a smaller core team rather than expanding capacity."}], "local_conditions": "Wyoming's nonmetro counties held unemployment near a historic floor in August 2026 \u2014 statewide at 3.0%, with Teton County at 1.8% and Albany County at 2.2% \u2014 but a decade-low quits rate of 2.1% signals a workforce that is staying put rather than moving toward better offers. Information-sector employment contracted faster than any other industry statewide even as IT wages rose locally, a split that points to fewer open requisitions competing for a shrinking pool of specialized talent rather than broad-based demand growth.", "implications": "Tight labor supply combined with a declining information-sector headcount suggests Wyoming nonmetro IT functions are consolidating around fewer, higher-value roles \u2014 Network Engineer and IT Project Manager advertised pay both posted significant year-over-year gains locally while Help Desk pay fell sharply, consistent with employers trimming commodity support roles while competing harder for infrastructure and delivery leadership. With statewide IT wages still running roughly $45K-$48K annually against a national cybersecurity average near $192K, in-house retention of senior security and cloud talent looks structurally difficult. Consider evaluating managed security and infrastructure-support contracts for roles where the local wage gap makes permanent hiring a retention liability rather than a cost advantage.", "looking_ahead": [{"category": "Expected", "body": "BLS publishes September 2026 Wyoming unemployment data October 20-21; watch whether nonmetro counties like Teton and Albany hold below 2.5% or begin ticking up as TerraPower-adjacent hiring stabilizes."}, {"category": "Emerging pressure point", "body": "National information-sector job losses (BLS, August) paired with Wyoming's own sector contraction may compound pressure on cybersecurity and cloud hiring if national employers pull remote-eligible nonmetro roles back toward metro hubs."}, {"category": "Worth watching", "body": "TerraPower's nuclear reactor project may create isolated technical hiring clusters in specific counties; monitor whether this pulls infrastructure and controls-engineering talent away from general IT support roles elsewhere in the state."}, {"category": "Early indicator", "body": "National Indeed Job Postings Index turned positive for the first time in nearly four years (103.5, mid-September); watch whether nonmetro Wyoming postings follow or continue lagging, which would confirm a locally constrained rather than nationally driven slowdown."}], "roles": [{"role": "Data Scientist", "data_scope": "metro", "metro_p25": 116313.0, "metro_p50": 151440.0, "metro_p75": 158162.0, "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": 66568.75, "metro_p50": 86293.0, "metro_p75": 92250.75, "metro_trend_direction": "up", "metro_trend_magnitude": "moderate", "national_p50": 101168.0, "national_trend_direction": "up", "national_trend_magnitude": "moderate"}, {"role": "Network Engineer", "data_scope": "metro", "metro_p25": 77519.0, "metro_p50": 117015.0, "metro_p75": 149966.5, "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": 124992.0, "metro_p50": 156798.2, "metro_p75": 169603.25, "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": 34497.75, "metro_p50": 50458.0, "metro_p75": 56614.0, "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": 80075.0, "metro_p50": 106890.0, "metro_p75": 116622.25, "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": 104591.5, "metro_p50": 126292.0, "metro_p75": 132703.0, "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": "wy-nonmetropolitan-area/information-technology/2026-09.html", "pdf": "wy-nonmetropolitan-area/information-technology/2026-09.pdf"}, "published_at": "2026-10-09T14:38:11.901670+00:00", "report_html_url": "https://reports.wagescape.com/archive/v1/editions/wy-nonmetropolitan-area/information-technology/2026-09.html", "report_pdf_url": "https://reports.wagescape.com/archive/v1/editions/wy-nonmetropolitan-area/information-technology/2026-09.pdf"}