Labor Market Pulse · Information Technology · September 2026
Information Technology Labor Market Report: Oklahoma City, OK MSA — September 2026
OKC unemployment climbs as cybersecurity pay breaks away from the pack.
Oklahoma City metro unemployment hit 4.2% in September — nearly a point above year-ago levels — while Cybersecurity Analyst advertised pay rose significantly to $100,718, underscoring a widening split between cooling general demand and tightening specialist markets.
Free archive edition. Published by WageScape as sent to subscribers; data as of September 2026.
Key indicators
- OKC metro unemployment rate: 4.2% — Up from 3.2% annual average in 2025
- Cybersecurity Analyst pay movement: Significant increase — Metro median $100,718, outpacing other local IT roles
- OK firms planning no 2026 wage increase: 33%+ — Up from 15% in 2023 (Kansas City Fed)
- OKC professional & business services: -0.7% — State lost 2,200 jobs in sector over the year
Key takeaways
Cybersecurity Analyst pay is moving fastest in the metro — intentionally.
Metro median advertised pay for Cybersecurity Analyst rose significantly this month to $100,718, outpacing most other IT roles tracked locally. That signals employers are front-running a widening skills gap rather than reacting to one, consistent with CompTIA's finding that cybersecurity job postings are growing 346% above the national occupational average.
Network Engineer pay softened even as national demand firmed.
Local Network Engineer advertised pay declined moderately while the national median climbed to $114,400, widening the metro-to-national gap. Motion Recruitment data showing network admin roles facing permanent demand compression nationally may be landing harder locally given the metro's slower overall hiring pace — a signal to recheck whether current postings reflect genuine scarcity or stale pay bands.
Professional services contraction may push IT consulting in-house.
Oklahoma City's professional & business services sector shed jobs for the year, mirroring a statewide 2,200-job decline, which typically compresses external IT consulting and systems integration demand. Enterprises leaning on contractors for non-core infrastructure work may find vendor pricing softening, while internal cloud and DevOps hiring becomes comparatively more attractive.
Data center expansion is a leading indicator, not yet a pay spike.
Google's Stillwater investment signals sustained local demand for cloud architecture, networking, and DevOps talent, but metro Systems Administrator pay has only moved up moderately so far. Compensation benchmarking should anticipate this demand before it fully shows up in advertised rates, not after.
Median advertised pay by role — Oklahoma City, OK MSA
| Role | 25th percentile | Median advertised pay | 75th percentile | Metro trend | National median |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Data Scientist | $90,868 | $122,041 | $141,162 | Stable | $148,250 |
| Systems Administrator | $69,075 | $83,042 | $89,586 | Moderate increase | $101,168 |
| Network Engineer | $71,870 | $103,456 | $125,006 | Moderate decline | $114,400 |
| Software Engineer | $101,328 | $140,400 | $157,664 | Moderate increase | $153,652 |
| Help Desk/IT Support Specialist | $38,431 | $49,496 | $54,080 | Stable | $53,644 |
| Cybersecurity Analyst | $80,306 | $100,718 | $124,723 | Significant increase | $106,790 |
| IT Project Manager | $91,097 | $115,046 | $123,843 | Moderate increase | $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
Oklahoma City metro unemployment climbed to 4.2% in September, nearly a full point above year-ago levels, as professional & business services contraction (-0.7%) and manufacturing softness (-1.5%) signal enterprise budget caution outside of core tech roles. Google's $3 billion Stillwater data center build is pulling local demand toward cloud, networking, and infrastructure specialization even as broader hiring momentum cools, creating a bifurcated market where commodity IT roles stagnate and infrastructure-adjacent skills tighten.
What it means
Metro-level cooling gives IT leaders more leverage on headcount timing for commodity functions, but the Stillwater data center buildout and statewide forecast of computer/math occupations as the second-fastest-growing category through 2034 suggest infrastructure and cloud-adjacent roles will keep tightening regardless of the broader slowdown. Oklahoma firms' reluctance to raise wages broadly — over a third plan no 2026 increases per Kansas City Fed survey data — makes targeted retention spend on cybersecurity and cloud specialists more cost-effective than across-the-board increases. Consider reviewing whether current compensation structures create enough separation between high-demand infrastructure/security roles and flatter-demand support functions to prevent quiet attrition among your most mobile specialists.
Looking ahead
Early indicator: Watch whether Google's Stillwater data center project generates visible upticks in cloud architecture and DevOps postings over the next two quarters. Early movement here would justify front-loading retention budgets for infrastructure specialists before competitive pressure peaks.
Emerging pressure point: Oklahoma firms' declining appetite for wage increases heading into 2026, per Kansas City Fed survey data, may widen the gap between stagnant support-role pay and accelerating cybersecurity/cloud pay. Monitor internal pay compression between these tiers as a retention risk signal.
Worth watching: Metro unemployment has risen nearly a full point year-over-year to 4.2%, reversing 2025's historically low readings. If this trend continues through Q4, expect increased candidate supply for commodity IT support roles but continued scarcity in security and cloud.
Potential inflection point: Professional & business services job losses could either push more IT consulting work in-house or, if sustained, start releasing experienced systems integration talent into the local candidate pool. Track local WARN filings and consulting firm headcount announcements for early signs.
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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