{"schema_version": 1, "id": "york-hanover-pa-msa/information-technology/2026-09", "product": "Labor Market Pulse", "metro": {"geography_id": 544, "label": "York-Hanover, PA MSA", "slug": "york-hanover-pa-msa"}, "focus_area": {"key": "information_technology", "slug": "information-technology", "label": "Information Technology"}, "period": "2026-09", "public_after": "2026-09-01", "frozen_at": "2026-10-09T13:19:10.564640+00:00", "headline": "York IT pay splits: security up, infrastructure down sharply.", "headline_summary": "York-Hanover Systems Administrator pay fell to $81,500 against a rising national median of $101,168, while local Cybersecurity Analyst pay climbed to $113,741 \u2014 outpacing the national figure of $106,790.", "key_indicators": [{"label": "York-Hanover unemployment rate", "value": "3.5%", "context": "vs 4.1% PA, 4.1% national (Aug 2026)"}, {"label": "Systems Administrator pay gap", "value": "$81,500 metro", "context": "vs $101,168 national, down significant locally"}, {"label": "York County online job postings", "value": "9,508", "context": "up 7.3% YoY (Aug 2026)"}, {"label": "York County wage growth", "value": "3.4%", "context": "vs PA statewide wages down 0.8% YoY"}], "takeaways": [{"headline": "Systems Administrator pay is collapsing locally while the national market tightens.", "body": "Metro median fell sharply to $81,500 against a national figure of $101,168 moving up moderately \u2014 a $20K gap that didn't exist a year ago. That divergence suggests local employers no longer view the role as scarce, making it a strong outsourcing or managed-services candidate rather than a retention priority."}, {"headline": "Cybersecurity and project management roles are the ones actually tightening.", "body": "Both Cybersecurity Analyst ($113,741) and IT Project Manager ($111,025) posted significant upward moves locally, outpacing their national counterparts. Budget reallocation toward these functions looks less like a one-month blip and more like employers locking in scarce coordination and risk-management talent before the labor pool thins further."}, {"headline": "Software Engineer pay softening locally bucks the national AI-driven premium story.", "body": "Metro median software engineer pay dropped moderately to $131,623 even as national postings held essentially flat at $153,652 \u2014 a $22K gap. Organizations competing for engineering talent against remote or Philadelphia/Pittsburgh-based employers may be underpricing the role relative to what candidates can find elsewhere."}, {"headline": "Shallow candidate pipelines, not headline unemployment, are the real constraint.", "body": "York's 3.5% unemployment rate looks reassuring, but statewide commentary on Pennsylvania's tech labor market points to slower, more competitive hiring processes despite steady posting volumes. Low open unemployment can mask a thin bench \u2014 recruiting timelines for specialized roles should be planned accordingly, not benchmarked against the headline rate."}], "local_conditions": "York-Hanover's unemployment rate held at 3.5% in August, nearly a full point below Pennsylvania's 4.1% statewide reading, while online job postings climbed 7.3% year-over-year to 9,508 \u2014 signaling a labor market still generating hiring volume even as statewide job growth concentrates in healthcare and leisure rather than tech-adjacent sectors.\u2009York County wage growth of 3.4% continues to outpace Pennsylvania's near-flat 0.8% statewide wage decline, suggesting employers here are paying a premium to compete for a shallow local talent pool rather than coasting on broader state wage trends.", "implications": "Metro-level pay divergence is widening by function: Cybersecurity Analyst and IT Project Manager advertised pay rose significantly this month while Systems Administrator pay dropped sharply to $81,500 \u2014 a signal that York-area employers are actively reallocating budget toward specialized, harder-to-backfill roles and away from commodity infrastructure functions. That split reinforces the national pattern of outsourcing or automating routine admin work while competing hard for security and delivery leadership talent; consider reviewing whether sysadmin and support headcount could shift toward managed services or contract staffing while reserving permanent budget increases for cybersecurity and project management roles facing genuine retention risk.", "looking_ahead": [{"category": "Emerging pressure point", "body": "Watch whether the Systems Administrator pay decline continues or stabilizes over the next two postings cycles \u2014 a sustained drop below $80K would further validate managed-services sourcing over permanent hires for that function."}, {"category": "Worth watching", "body": "York County's 23.4% share of workers aged 55-64 creates succession exposure in infrastructure and network roles; monitor whether retirements accelerate departures faster than the current posting volume can backfill."}, {"category": "Potential inflection point", "body": "National WARN filings from Amazon, Meta, Oracle and Verizon haven't yet shown up as a meaningful local candidate influx, but York's Amazon.com Services LLC presence as a top-five employer makes this a specific channel to track for released tech and ops talent."}, {"category": "Expected", "body": "With national AI engineer and cybersecurity pay climbing 8-9% year-over-year, expect continued upward pressure on York's already-tightening Cybersecurity Analyst and IT Project Manager postings through year-end budget cycles."}], "roles": [{"role": "Data Scientist", "data_scope": "metro", "metro_p25": 124822.5, "metro_p50": 145689.0, "metro_p75": 165339.75, "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": 63472.0, "metro_p50": 81500.0, "metro_p75": 97757.5, "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": "metro", "metro_p25": 72366.0, "metro_p50": 103788.0, "metro_p75": 105000.0, "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": 93124.0, "metro_p50": 131623.0, "metro_p75": 150633.0, "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": 41847.0, "metro_p50": 52095.0, "metro_p75": 59710.0, "metro_trend_direction": "up", "metro_trend_magnitude": "moderate", "national_p50": 53644.0, "national_trend_direction": "stable", "national_trend_magnitude": "stable"}, {"role": "Cybersecurity Analyst", "data_scope": "metro", "metro_p25": 95313.0, "metro_p50": 113741.0, "metro_p75": 119278.0, "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": 104354.0, "metro_p50": 111025.0, "metro_p75": 111247.0, "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": "york-hanover-pa-msa/information-technology/2026-09.html", "pdf": "york-hanover-pa-msa/information-technology/2026-09.pdf"}, "published_at": "2026-10-09T14:38:15.507805+00:00", "report_html_url": "https://reports.wagescape.com/archive/v1/editions/york-hanover-pa-msa/information-technology/2026-09.html", "report_pdf_url": "https://reports.wagescape.com/archive/v1/editions/york-hanover-pa-msa/information-technology/2026-09.pdf"}