Labor Market Pulse · Information Technology · September 2026
Information Technology Labor Market Report: Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington, TX MSA — September 2026
DFW tech splits: Information jobs shrink as AI infrastructure hiring surges.
DFW unemployment eased to 4.4% in August after Information-sector employment fell 2.8% over the year, even as cybersecurity pay climbed to a $110,725 metro median against new Fort Worth AI-hardware investment.
Free archive edition. Published by WageScape as sent to subscribers; data as of September 2026.
Key indicators
- DFW unemployment rate: 4.4% — Down from 4.6% in July, up from 4.1% in February
- DFW Information sector employment: -2.8% YoY — Steepest decline of DFW's ten major sectors
- DFW average weekly wage: $1,785 — vs $1,654 U.S. average, Q1 2026
- Cybersecurity analyst pay, metro: $110,725 — Up moderately; now above $106,790 national median
Key takeaways
DFW's Information sector is shrinking while infrastructure jobs boom.
A 2.8% annual drop in Information-sector employment sits alongside 23,500 new Professional and Business Services jobs and two major Fort Worth data-center investments. Headcount plans built on a single DFW tech narrative risk missing this split — budget separately for commodity IT versus AI-infrastructure roles.
Cybersecurity pay keeps climbing against a cooling metro backdrop.
Metro cybersecurity analyst pay is up moderately to $110,725, now ahead of the $106,790 national figure, even as DFW unemployment rose through much of the year. Scarcity in this role appears structural, not cyclical — current conditions suggest benchmarking cybersecurity against demand rather than the broader metro softening.
Systems administrator pay rising may reflect entry-tier compression.
Metro systems administrator pay moved up moderately to $99,941, converging with the national $101,168, even as CompTIA data shows traditional IT operations facing permanent demand compression nationally. This may signal fewer administrators doing more consolidated work rather than genuine market tightness — worth testing against actual requisition volume before adjusting bands broadly.
Fort Worth's AI buildout is a regional pay signal, not a Plano one yet.
Celestica's $876M campus and Wistron's new plant concentrate demand for cloud architecture and networking talent west of Plano, but advertised pay for network engineers and software engineers locally remains stable. Organizations should evaluate whether this investment reaches Plano hiring pools within two to three quarters or stays geographically contained.
Median advertised pay by role — Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington, TX MSA
| Role | 25th percentile | Median advertised pay | 75th percentile | Metro trend | National median |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Data Scientist | $117,301 | $136,499 | $154,112 | Stable | $148,250 |
| Systems Administrator | $80,714 | $99,941 | $110,350 | Moderate increase | $101,168 |
| Network Engineer | $80,060 | $113,292 | $129,789 | Stable | $114,400 |
| Software Engineer | $109,000 | $143,863 | $157,183 | Stable | $153,652 |
| Help Desk/IT Support Specialist | $43,410 | $53,271 | $58,299 | Stable | $53,644 |
| Cybersecurity Analyst | $94,381 | $110,725 | $127,686 | Moderate increase | $106,790 |
| IT Project Manager | $99,160 | $117,762 | $130,000 | Stable | $117,530 |
WageScape's median is calibrated to correct for spurious low-value postings (reported as the 60th percentile of raw advertised pay). Download: CSV · JSON
Local market conditions
Plano-area employers are hiring into a DFW metro where unemployment climbed to 4.6% in July before easing to 4.4% in August, even as Professional and Business Services added 23,500 jobs over the year and Fort Worth landed two major AI-hardware investments — Wistron's NVIDIA systems plant and Celestica's $876M campus. Information-sector employment fell 2.8% over the same period, the steepest decline of any DFW industry, signaling a bifurcated market where infrastructure and AI-adjacent hiring expands while traditional tech employment contracts.
What it means
Rising metro unemployment alongside falling Information-sector headcount suggests softening demand for conventional IT operations roles, while concentrated AI/data-center investment in Fort Worth is pulling cloud, networking and DevOps talent into a tighter, higher-cost tier — a divergence that complicates flat-rate headcount planning. Build-vs-buy calculus is shifting: commodity infrastructure and support functions face genuine labor supply loosening, while specialized cloud and security talent remains scarce and exposed to poaching from hyperscaler-adjacent employers moving into North Texas. Consider reviewing which roles sit in the contracting Information-sector tier versus the expanding infrastructure tier before finalizing Q4 headcount requests, rather than applying a uniform freeze or uniform raise pool.
Looking ahead
Worth watching: DFW unemployment eased to 4.4% in August from 4.6% in July — watch whether this stabilizes or resumes climbing, since a continued rise would widen the candidate pool for commodity IT support roles faster than for specialized cloud and security talent.
Emerging pressure point: Information-sector job losses (-2.8% YoY) may begin releasing mid-career IT professionals into the DFW candidate pool. Track whether this talent pivots toward infrastructure and AI-adjacent roles or exits the metro, which would affect both wage pressure and time-to-fill for Plano employers.
Potential inflection point: Celestica and Wistron hiring ramps in Fort Worth through Q4 could pull cloud and DevOps talent across the metro, including from Plano-based employers. Monitor whether advertised pay for network engineers and systems administrators in Collin County begins moving beyond its current stable trend.
Early indicator: Texas WARN filings are down 45% in affected workers year-over-year statewide, concentrated in transportation and manufacturing rather than tech — a signal that any DFW tech layoffs this quarter would represent a meaningfully different, more concerning pattern than the statewide norm.
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. WageScape observes 98% of U.S. job openings daily.
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