Labor Market Pulse · Information Technology · September 2026
Information Technology Labor Market Report: Lubbock, TX MSA — September 2026
Lubbock IT pay splits sharply: infrastructure up, software down.
Metro Network Engineer pay climbed to $107,175 while Software Engineer pay fell to $117,579 and Data Scientist pay dropped to $90,239, even as Lubbock's unemployment rate rose to 4.4%.
Free archive edition. Published by WageScape as sent to subscribers; data as of September 2026.
Key indicators
- Lubbock unemployment rate: 4.4% — Up from 4.0% a year prior (Aug 2026)
- Metro wage growth: 9% — YoY through Aug 2026, outpacing Texas's 3.9%
- Texas software developer openings: 10,843 — Statewide, Sept 2026 (TWC)
- Cybersecurity pay gap, metro vs national: $39,581 — $67,209 metro vs $106,790 national median
Key takeaways
Network Engineer pay is outrunning the national trend.
Metro Network Engineer advertised pay rose significantly to $107,175, nearly closing the gap with the $114,400 national median — a local tightness signal that is not mirrored in most other IT roles. Infrastructure build-vs-buy decisions in Lubbock should assume this role now carries real retention risk, not just a market adjustment.
Software Engineer and Data Scientist pay are falling locally while rising nationally.
Metro Software Engineer pay dropped to $117,579 (moderate decline) and Data Scientist pay fell sharply to $90,239, even as national medians for both held steady or climbed. This divergence is consistent with Lubbock employers losing leverage to compete for higher-order technical talent against remote and metro-premium markets like Austin.
Help Desk pay decline signals commodity-role compression, not local distress.
Metro Help Desk pay fell significantly to $43,680 against a stable national figure of $53,644, tracking the national pattern of AI-driven automation pressure on entry-tier IT support. Expect this gap to widen further, reinforcing the case for consolidating support functions through managed service providers rather than local hires.
Cybersecurity Analyst pay gap with the nation remains the widest in the table.
Metro Cybersecurity Analyst pay sits at $67,209 against a national median of $106,790 — a nearly $40K spread even as both trend upward. With Texas security analyst roles projected for 29% growth through 2034, Lubbock employers risk losing analysts to Dallas or remote-first security teams unless local pay catches up faster than the current moderate pace.
Median advertised pay by role — Lubbock, TX MSA
| Role | 25th percentile | Median advertised pay | 75th percentile | Metro trend | National median |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Data Scientist | $71,715 | $90,239 | $90,240 | Significant decline | $148,250 |
| Systems Administrator | $67,119 | $83,170 | $95,068 | Moderate increase | $101,168 |
| Network Engineer | $77,457 | $107,175 | $118,229 | Significant increase | $114,400 |
| Software Engineer | $87,263 | $117,579 | $129,960 | Moderate decline | $153,652 |
| Help Desk/IT Support Specialist | $33,280 | $43,680 | $46,098 | Significant decline | $53,644 |
| Cybersecurity Analyst | $67,200 | $67,209 | $77,085 | Moderate increase | $106,790 |
| IT Project Manager | $79,234 | $100,000 | $109,349 | 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
Lubbock's labor market held flat in August 2026, with unemployment ticking up to 4.4% from 4.0% a year earlier even as wages rose 9% metro-wide, suggesting a cooling hiring pace alongside persistent wage pressure that is not evenly distributed across sectors. Government, education/health, and hospitality dominate local employment (nearly 58% combined), leaving the metro's IT labor pool thin and heavily dependent on talent imported from Dallas or Austin rather than organic specialist supply.
What it means
Metro-level wage growth is masking sharp divergence at the role level — Network Engineer pay rose significantly while Software Engineer and Data Scientist advertised pay both declined, consistent with a market where infrastructure and security skills are scarce locally but higher-order technical roles increasingly get filled remotely from larger labor pools. This divergence strengthens the case for hybrid staffing models: build infrastructure and network capacity in-market where competition is real, but consider sourcing software engineering and data science talent through remote or contract arrangements where Lubbock's advertised pay is losing ground to national rates. Current conditions suggest reviewing whether software engineering and data science reqs should remain geographically anchored to Lubbock at all, given the widening pay gap against national medians. Based on the pay data, Network Engineer, Systems Administrator, and Cybersecurity Analyst roles are strengthening locally even as Software Engineer, Data Scientist, and Help Desk pay are softening — a split worth building into 2027 headcount plans now.
Looking ahead
Worth watching: Lubbock's unemployment rate rose to 4.4% in August from 4.0% a year prior while employment stayed flat versus July 2025 — watch whether September data confirms a genuine softening or a seasonal blip tied to education-sector hiring cycles.
Emerging pressure point: The widening gap between metro and national pay for Software Engineer and Data Scientist roles may accelerate remote-first hiring by Lubbock employers, thinning the local in-office technical talent pool further and raising the cost of any future push to rebuild on-site capacity.
Potential inflection point: Leprino Foods' dairy facility is expected to complete hiring toward its 600-worker target in 2026, a rare large-scale industrial build that could pull general labor and entry-level technical support away from local IT service providers competing for the same wage tier.
Early indicator: Texas's statewide WARN filings are down 45% year-over-year, but national tech-sector layoffs (Amazon, Meta, Oracle) continue generating remote-capable IT talent. Monitor whether any of that displaced capacity surfaces in Lubbock's candidate pool for infrastructure or security roles.
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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