Metro Job Market Pulse · General Market Conditions · September 2026
General Market Conditions Labor Market Report: El Paso, TX MSA — September 2026
El Paso jobless rate holds a point above Texas average.
El Paso's 4.8% unemployment rate continues to run a full point above both the 4.0% Texas rate and the 4.1% national rate, even as metro warehouse and manufacturing pay softened against a statewide industrial wage gain of 4.8%.
Free archive edition. Published by WageScape as sent to subscribers; data as of September 2026.
Key indicators
- Metro unemployment rate: 4.8% — vs 4.0% Texas, 4.1% national (Aug 2026)
- Texas manufacturing wage growth: 4.8% — Fastest pace since Dec 2023, statewide
- Metro warehouse/fulfillment pay: $29,631 — Down, moderate — diverges from state trend
- Texas labor force participation: 63.7% — vs 62.2% national
Key takeaways
El Paso's jobless rate outpaces the state by a full point.
August's 4.8% metro unemployment rate sits well above Texas's 4.0% and the 4.1% national rate, a gap that has persisted for several months and signals the local economy is absorbing less labor-market tightening than the state overall.
Goods-movement pay is softening while the state's industrial sector heats up.
Metro warehouse/fulfillment and manufacturing-production pay both moved down this month, even as Texas manufacturing wages grew 4.8% statewide — the fastest pace since December 2023 — suggesting El Paso's logistics and assembly base isn't capturing the broader state's industrial momentum.
Professional and public-service pay gains tell a different story.
Registered nurse, teacher, software engineer, and financial analyst advertised pay all rose significantly locally this month, indicating that whatever economic momentum exists in El Paso is concentrated in healthcare, education, and skilled technical work rather than trade and logistics.
Federal presence remains a stabilizing, not expansionary, force.
Fort Bliss and other federal employment continue to anchor the metro's labor base, but with national government payrolls contracting by 216,000 over the past year, public-sector stability locally should not be read as a growth signal.
Median advertised pay by role — El Paso, TX MSA
| Role | 25th percentile | Median advertised pay | 75th percentile | Metro trend | National median |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Retail Sales Associate | $22,841 | $27,040 | $31,115 | Stable | $33,325 |
| Retail Cashier | $20,977 | $24,960 | $26,223 | Stable | $31,200 |
| Warehouse/Fulfillment Associate | $25,397 | $29,631 | $32,760 | Moderate decline | $38,000 |
| CDL Truck Driver | $52,432 | $80,069 | $91,000 | Stable | $78,000 |
| Delivery Driver | $25,786 | $27,784 | $30,805 | Moderate decline | $34,344 |
| Construction Laborer | $26,382 | $33,830 | $34,725 | Moderate increase | $40,560 |
| Electrician | $53,040 | $62,916 | $72,800 | Stable | $71,404 |
| Manufacturing Production Worker/Assembler | $25,837 | $27,262 | $30,680 | Significant decline | $39,520 |
| Customer Service Representative | $29,640 | $34,227 | $36,858 | Moderate increase | $39,520 |
| Food Service Worker | $24,992 | $31,200 | $41,080 | Stable | $33,756 |
| Certified Nursing Assistant / Home Health Aide | $29,017 | $33,197 | $35,360 | Stable | $41,106 |
| Administrative Assistant/Office Clerk | $27,720 | $33,561 | $36,780 | Stable | $43,680 |
| HVAC Technician | $52,000 | $58,282 | $62,475 | Moderate increase | $70,720 |
| Registered Nurse | $81,419 | $103,239 | $111,880 | Moderate increase | $102,581 |
| Software Engineer | $91,284 | $140,063 | $149,950 | Significant increase | $153,652 |
| Data Engineer | $104,086 | $120,652 | $136,500 | Stable | $139,500 |
| Accountant | $48,998 | $59,390 | $67,484 | Stable | $72,182 |
| Financial Analyst | $63,911 | $82,382 | $85,337 | Significant increase | $94,782 |
| HR Generalist/Manager | $46,712 | $62,846 | $80,120 | Significant increase | $75,000 |
| Marketing Specialist | $36,875 | $46,800 | $54,550 | Stable | $62,354 |
| Operations Manager * | $70,000 | $83,712 | $98,391 | Moderate decline | $85,216 |
| Elementary/Secondary School Teacher | $29,657 | $57,348 | $61,091 | Significant increase | $56,731 |
| Account Manager | $62,500 | $87,450 | $90,000 | Significant increase | $92,749 |
| Warehouse Manager * | $48,368 | $70,237 | $81,507 | Significant decline | $75,000 |
| Business Analyst | $74,362 | $82,177 | $88,184 | Significant increase | $98,279 |
* State-level figure shown where metro postings were too few.
WageScape's median is calibrated to correct for spurious low-value postings (reported as the 60th percentile of raw advertised pay). Download: CSV · JSON
Industry snapshot
| Sector | Median advertised pay | Pay trend | Postings trend |
|---|---|---|---|
| Construction | $72,583 | Stable | Significant increase |
| Manufacturing | $80,425 | Significant increase | Stable |
| Retail Trade | $32,256 | Stable | Moderate decline |
| Transportation, Warehousing & Utilities | $46,115 | Stable | Significant increase |
| Information | $62,285 | Significant increase | Stable |
| Financial Activities | $50,000 | Moderate increase | Significant increase |
| Professional & Business Services | $46,435 | Moderate decline | Stable |
| Education & Health Services | $77,655 | Significant increase | Moderate increase |
| Leisure & Hospitality | $27,040 | Stable | Significant decline |
| Government | $64,942 | Significant increase | Significant decline |
Local market conditions
El Paso's unemployment rate held at 4.8% through August, a full percentage point above the Texas rate of 4.0%, as the metro's historically public-sector-and-trade-heavy base continues to absorb slower border-adjacent logistics activity alongside steady federal employment anchored by Fort Bliss. Warehouse, delivery, and manufacturing-assembly pay in the metro have moved down this month even as Texas manufacturing wages statewide climbed 4.8% over the year, pointing to a local divergence between border-corridor goods-movement work and the broader state's industrial expansion.
What it means
Local gaps between El Paso's softening warehouse and manufacturing pay and Texas's strengthening statewide industrial wage growth suggest El Paso's goods-movement sector is underperforming its state peers, a signal commerce leaders and economic development officials may want to weigh when assessing the metro's competitiveness for logistics and cross-border trade investment. Meanwhile, sharp advertised-pay gains in registered nursing, teaching, financial analysis, and software engineering indicate the metro's growth is concentrated in skilled professional and public-service work rather than broad-based goods-handling employment. Consider evaluating whether current regional economic development messaging still accurately reflects where El Paso's genuine wage and hiring momentum sits, rather than assuming parity with statewide industrial trends.
Looking ahead
Worth watching: Whether El Paso's unemployment gap versus the state (4.8% vs 4.0%) narrows or widens as September data releases, given Texas's upward-revised 2026 job growth forecast of 2.0%.
Emerging pressure point: Continued softening in warehouse and manufacturing-assembly advertised pay locally, against a backdrop of statewide manufacturing acceleration, raises a question for economic development leaders about whether cross-border logistics investment is bypassing El Paso in favor of other Texas corridors.
Early indicator: National WARN filings have pulled back year over year (163,000 affected workers in 2026 vs 261,800 in 2025), and Texas logistics/manufacturing layoffs remain the most-affected sectors statewide — worth tracking whether any filings surface in the El Paso corridor specifically.
Potential inflection point: Texas labor force participation (63.7%) continues to outpace the national rate (62.2%), and local observers should watch whether El Paso's own participation trend moves with or against that state pattern as new county-level data becomes available.
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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