Labor Market Pulse · Information Technology · October 2026
Information Technology Labor Market Report: Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington, TX MSA — October 2026
Dallas IT pay cools as cybersecurity breaks from the pack.
DFW wages and salaries grew just 1.8% against 3.4% nationally even as metro Cybersecurity Analyst pay climbed to $111,190, outpacing the $107,327 national median.
Free archive edition. Published by WageScape as sent to subscribers; data as of October 2026.
Key indicators
- DFW wage growth: 1.8% — vs 3.4% national (Employment Cost Index, year to March 2026)
- DFW unemployment rate: 4.4% — Up from 4.2% year-ago; Collin Co. biggest jump to 4.4%
- DFW Information sector jobs: -2.1% — vs Prof/Business Services +3.1% same period
- National tech layoffs, YTD: 133,417 — Already exceeds full-year 2025 total, through Oct. 21
Key takeaways
Cybersecurity pay is pulling ahead while most IT roles sit flat.
Metro Cybersecurity Analyst pay rose to $111,190, outpacing the national median of $107,327, while Systems Administrator, Network Engineer and Software Engineer medians held stable. Compensation budgets built around flat IT inflation will understate what it takes to hold security talent through year-end.
DFW wage growth is lagging the nation for the first time in years.
Employment Cost Index data show DFW wages and salaries up just 1.8% versus 3.4% nationally, inverting the metro's usual premium. Organizations recruiting against Austin's semiconductor buildout or national tech hubs can treat Dallas pay as decoupled from national increases this cycle.
Information-sector job losses look like a sourcing opportunity.
DFW Information employment fell 2.1% even as Professional and Business Services added nearly 25,000 jobs, suggesting displaced infrastructure and support talent is entering a metro where other sectors are still hiring. Current conditions may favor opportunistic direct hiring over expanding managed-services contracts for roles that were hard to fill twelve months ago.
Help Desk pay stability signals commodity-role outsourcing pressure is building nationally.
Metro Help Desk/IT Support median ($52,616) holds steady against a declining national median ($53,129), even as CompTIA projects Texas tech job growth will outpace labor supply. This dynamic is playing out at the national level even as local pay holds flat. Widening gap between flat local pay and softening national pay is consistent with continued momentum toward offshore or MSP-delivered support models for routine tiers.
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 | $115,999 | $135,687 | $153,766 | Stable | $145,881 |
| Systems Administrator | $80,714 | $100,000 | $111,178 | Moderate increase | $102,503 |
| Network Engineer | $81,987 | $114,034 | $130,286 | Stable | $115,757 |
| Software Engineer | $111,014 | $145,845 | $159,420 | Stable | $154,403 |
| Help Desk/IT Support Specialist | $43,325 | $52,616 | $57,974 | Stable | $53,129 |
| Cybersecurity Analyst | $95,388 | $111,190 | $129,000 | Moderate increase | $107,327 |
| IT Project Manager | $99,362 | $118,096 | $129,763 | Stable | $118,150 |
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
Dallas-Fort Worth's unemployment rate climbed to 4.4% through August, with Collin County posting the sharpest increase to 4.4% even as Denton held tightest at 4.2% — a sign that cooling is uneven across the metro. Professional and Business Services generated 24,700 of the metro's 43,100 net new jobs over the year, while Information sector employment contracted 2.1%, consistent with national tech-sector layoff activity that has already pushed 2026 job cuts past full-year 2025 totals.
What it means
Information-sector contraction locally, paired with 133,417 national tech layoffs through October, suggests IT leaders have more access to displaced infrastructure and support talent than headcount plans may assume — a window that favors selective internal hiring for commodity roles. At the same time, DFW wages and salaries rose just 1.8% versus 3.4% nationally per the Employment Cost Index, meaning specialized talent — particularly AI/ML and cybersecurity — can be retained locally at a smaller premium than peer metros require, even as national AI engineer pay carries a $25,000 floor premium. Consider reviewing whether current infrastructure and security headcount plans still assume a tight 2025-style labor market, or whether Dallas's cooling conditions justify shifting planned outsourcing spend back toward direct hires.
Looking ahead
Worth watching: Collin County's unemployment jump to 4.4% from 4.2% is the metro's sharpest move this cycle. Track whether this reflects tech-adjacent layoffs concentrated in Plano/Frisco corridor employers, which would directly expand the local pool for infrastructure and cloud talent.
Emerging pressure point: Texas's Responsible AI Governance Act, effective since January, applies to any tool that screens, ranks or monitors candidates. IT leaders running AI-assisted applicant tracking for technical hiring should confirm compliance review has occurred before Q1 hiring cycles accelerate.
Early indicator: Austin's semiconductor buildout continues drawing infrastructure and operations talent away from enterprise IT roles statewide. Watch whether Dallas employers raise on-prem infrastructure pay to compete, which would widen the gap against flatter cloud-role compensation and sharpen hybrid-vs-cloud cost tradeoffs.
Potential inflection point: National tech layoffs have already exceeded all of 2025 with two months remaining in the year. A continued pace into November and December could meaningfully deepen the Dallas candidate pool for mid-level infrastructure and security roles heading into 2027 budget cycles.
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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