Labor Market Pulse · Information Technology · October 2026
Information Technology Labor Market Report: Oklahoma City, OK MSA — October 2026
OKC cybersecurity pay hits national parity as help desk pay slides.
Metro Cybersecurity Analyst pay rose to $107,113, matching the $107,327 national median, while Help Desk/IT Support pay fell and metro unemployment climbed to 3.70% from 3.40% a year ago.
Free archive edition. Published by WageScape as sent to subscribers; data as of October 2026.
Key indicators
- Metro unemployment rate: 3.70% — Up from 3.40% a year ago (Sept. 2026 vs Sept. 2025)
- Cybersecurity Analyst advertised pay: $107,113 — Now matches $107,327 national median
- Oklahoma tech employment growth, 2020-2025: 2.3% — vs 10.1% national growth; state ranks 47th
- Help Desk/IT Support advertised pay: $47,493 — Down moderately; national median also declining
Key takeaways
Cybersecurity pay is breaking away from the rest of IT.
Metro Cybersecurity Analyst advertised pay is up significantly this month, now matching the national median of roughly $107,100 — a rare instance of metro parity with national rates. That convergence suggests local employers are bidding at national rates to fill roles the state's thin talent pipeline cannot otherwise supply.
Help desk pay softness creates room to restructure and save.
Metro Help Desk/IT Support pay fell this month, tracking a broader national pullback in entry-level IT support. Declining advertised pay alongside rising unemployment may support shifting routine support work to outsourced or offshore tiers while redirecting savings toward retention budgets for scarcer infrastructure and security talent.
Systems Administrator demand is quietly outpacing Network Engineer growth.
Metro Systems Administrator pay rose moderately to $84,919 while Network Engineer pay held flat at $109,649 — a signal that hybrid and on-prem infrastructure maintenance is drawing steadier demand than network-specific buildout locally. Headcount planning should weigh this toward retention of generalist infrastructure staff over narrow network specialists.
Metro tech wage growth trails the state's broader wage gains.
Oklahoma County wages rose 4.8% year-over-year through Q3, yet several metro IT roles — Data Scientist, Network Engineer, Cybersecurity Analyst base levels — show stable trends. Gap between broad-economy wage growth and flat specialized-IT advertised pay may reflect employers holding firm on senior technical comp while inflation erodes its real value, a retention risk worth tracking into next quarter.
Median advertised pay by role — Oklahoma City, OK MSA
| Role | 25th percentile | Median advertised pay | 75th percentile | Metro trend | National median |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Data Scientist | $91,168 | $121,534 | $140,665 | Stable | $145,881 |
| Systems Administrator | $69,173 | $84,919 | $91,842 | Moderate increase | $102,503 |
| Network Engineer | $71,870 | $109,649 | $130,771 | Stable | $115,757 |
| Software Engineer | $101,268 | $140,175 | $158,769 | Moderate increase | $154,403 |
| Help Desk/IT Support Specialist | $38,634 | $47,493 | $53,040 | Moderate decline | $53,129 |
| Cybersecurity Analyst | $79,113 | $107,113 | $126,055 | Significant increase | $107,327 |
| IT Project Manager | $90,618 | $115,046 | $123,481 | Moderate increase | $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
Oklahoma City metro unemployment climbed to 3.70% in September, up from 3.40% a year earlier, even as employment grew modestly against a backdrop of national information-sector job losses and continued tech layoffs — 133,417 nationally through late October. Local tech employment growth has trailed the national pace for five years running, meaning metro IT leaders are competing for a structurally undersized talent pool just as cybersecurity and infrastructure pay accelerate nationally.
What it means
Rising metro unemployment alongside tight, specialized IT talent pools signals a bifurcated market: broad layoff activity and softening help desk pay create opportunities to backfill commodity support roles at lower cost, while cybersecurity and systems administration pay keep climbing locally, reflecting structural scarcity in a tight specialized talent pool. Oklahoma's thin AI and advanced-infrastructure bench — only 47.2% of STEM graduates stay in-state — means build-vs-buy tradeoffs increasingly favor managed services or remote/offshore arrangements for specialized functions, easing pressure to compete head-on for scarce local talent. Consider reviewing whether security and infrastructure headcount plans assume metro-based hiring timelines that current supply conditions no longer support.
Looking ahead
Early indicator: Watch whether rising metro unemployment (3.70%, up from 3.40% a year ago) begins feeding laid-off tech and adjacent professionals into the local candidate pool, which could ease Systems Administrator and Network Engineer sourcing pressure within a quarter.
Emerging pressure point: National information-sector hiring rates have fallen to 1.6% of employment, and Oklahoma's STEM retention sits near 47%. If this persists, expect continued upward pressure on Cybersecurity Analyst and specialized infrastructure pay even as broader IT hiring cools.
Worth watching: 121 companies are reportedly considering relocation or expansion into Greater Oklahoma City. New corporate entrants typically accelerate local demand for IT Project Manager and Systems Administrator talent before broader headcount growth shows up in state data.
Potential inflection point: National AI-related job postings now exceed 7% of all postings versus a 2022 peak of 3.3%. If that demand migrates into data-center and infrastructure buildout locally, expect metro Software Engineer and Systems Administrator advertised pay to move beyond this month's moderate gains.
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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