Midwest "old school" firms tend to be very conservative in terms of compensation and headcount. That was definitely the case when I was managing teams there. Good talent, but at a fraction of the cost of hiring people at any tech hub.
Ninja edit: The company I worked for did layoff (around 2008) but that was more of a scare tactic which I ended up leaving the company over.
Probably lower real wages (compared to what they'd have been otherwise) as competition heats up for those positions, as well as a tougher hiring environment for job seekers.
This seems more like an issue in tech hubs or in primarily software companies.
What does it look like for all the software developers in the IT departments in non-software companies?