Labor Market Pulse · Human Resources · August 2026
Human Resources Labor Market Report: San Antonio, TX MSA — August 2026
Wage Growth Trails the Nation While Benefit Costs Surge
San Antonio's metro unemployment ticked up to 4.7% in July 2026 — 80 basis points above a year ago — while local wage growth of 1.3% year-over-year lags the national rate of 3.5%, even as employer health benefit costs are projected to climb 8.2% in 2027, the steepest increase in over two decades.
Free archive edition. Published by WageScape as sent to subscribers; data as of August 2026.
Key indicators
- San Antonio MSA Unemployment (July 2026): 4.7% — Up from 4.0% a year ago; city rate 4.6% vs. Texas 4.8%
- SA Wage Growth YoY (June 2026): 1.3% — vs. 2.9% Texas avg, 3.5% national — widening gap
- Projected Employer Health Cost Rise (2027): 8.2%–9.5% — Highest increase since 2003; avg cost >$19K/employee
- U.S. Quits Rate (July 2026): 1.9% — Post-pandemic low; hires rate 3.2%, weakest since Feb
Key takeaways
San Antonio wage growth is now less than half the national rate.
Local nominal wage growth decelerated to 1.3% year-over-year in June 2026, versus 3.5% nationally — a gap that has widened materially over the past 12 months. For compensation professionals benchmarking roles against national advertised pay data, this divergence may suggest that metro-specific pay structures are falling behind market faster than annual merit cycles are capturing.
A falling quits rate is not the same as a stable workforce.
The national quits rate dropped to 1.9% in July 2026, a post-pandemic low — and local conditions appear broadly consistent with this trend. Current conditions suggest reduced voluntary mobility may reflect worker caution in a softening market rather than genuine engagement; organizations relying on low turnover as a proxy for retention health may be underestimating flight risk once hiring confidence returns.
Benefit cost inflation is arriving faster than most compensation budgets anticipated.
Employer health benefit costs are projected to rise 8.2% in 2027 — the steepest increase since 2003 — according to Marsh's National Survey of Employer-Sponsored Health Plans, following an 8.8% increase in 2026. For San Antonio employers managing both a local wage disadvantage and a rising benefits cost line simultaneously, the Benefits Manager role's stable local advertised pay may warrant a fresh look against structural demand pressure.
Government sector contraction is reshaping San Antonio's candidate pool.
Federal workforce reductions tied to DOGE-related directives contributed to government payroll declines in the metro throughout late 2025 and into 2026, releasing experienced operations and administrative talent into the local market. HR leaders hiring for mid-level coordinator, analyst, or specialist roles may find this pool underpriced relative to private-sector advertised rates — particularly for roles where public-sector compensation benchmarks ran below market.
Median advertised pay by role — San Antonio, TX MSA
| Role | 25th percentile | Median advertised pay | 75th percentile | Metro trend | National median |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Compensation Analyst | $59,499 | $73,389 | $80,110 | Moderate decline | $101,055 |
| HR Business Partner | $55,146 | $75,000 | $84,166 | Moderate increase | $83,180 |
| Benefits Manager | $72,500 | $88,481 | $106,546 | Stable | $120,000 |
| HRIS Analyst | $70,420 | $78,686 | $79,875 | Stable | $95,665 |
| HR Coordinator | $39,150 | $47,840 | $50,665 | Significant increase | $50,095 |
| Recruiter | $43,484 | $57,263 | $63,355 | Moderate increase | $67,643 |
| Payroll Specialist | $47,069 | $54,186 | $59,355 | Stable | $58,266 |
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
San Antonio's labor market is softening against a complicated backdrop: the metro's not-seasonally-adjusted unemployment rate reached 4.7% in July 2026, up 80 basis points from a year prior, as civilian labor force contraction and ongoing government sector payroll declines — tied in part to federal workforce reductions driven by DOGE-related cuts — offset private sector gains in trade, professional services, and logistics. Local wage growth decelerated sharply to 1.3% year-over-year as of June 2026, well below the Texas average of 2.9% and the national rate of 3.5%, a divergence that appears to reflect the metro's sector mix: healthcare, government, and hospitality — San Antonio's three largest employment anchors — are also the segments where wage gains have been most compressed.
What it means
A widening gap between local advertised pay rates and national medians — visible across nearly every HR functional role — signals that San Antonio employers are increasingly exposed to out-of-market compensation risk as nationally mobile talent sets expectations against higher-paying metros; at the same time, the low local quits rate (mirroring the national post-pandemic low of 1.9%) may be masking latent dissatisfaction rather than genuine retention strength. With employer health benefit costs projected to rise 8.2% in 2027 — the largest increase since 2003 — total rewards budgets face simultaneous pressure from both the wage gap and the benefits cost line; organizations should evaluate whether current compensation structures adequately offset the growing employee cost burden before Q1 2027 plan design decisions are finalized.
Looking ahead
Emerging pressure point: With employer health benefit costs set to rise 8.2%–9.5% in 2027 and 59% of employers nationally planning plan design changes — including higher deductibles — San Antonio HR leaders face an employee affordability reckoning. Employees are already projected to carry $5,297 in out-of-pocket health costs in 2026; further cost-shifting in a market where wage growth trails inflation may accelerate voluntary separations among lower and mid-wage roles.
Worth watching: The Air Force and Space Force fiscal 2027 budget request includes funding for more than 6,000 new civilian hires — roughly 70% to backfill DOGE-related vacancies — with Joint Base San Antonio-Lackland among the largest affected installations in the country. Watch whether this re-hiring wave tightens the local pool for mid-level technical and administrative talent, reversing the softening seen in government-adjacent candidate supply over the past 12 months.
Potential inflection point: National JOLTS data for July 2026 shows the hires rate falling to 3.2% — one of the weakest hiring rates on record outside of recessions — even as job openings hold at 7.3 million. If this low-hire, low-fire pattern persists into Q4, San Antonio organizations planning headcount additions may find a larger candidate pool than current unemployment figures suggest, but competition for actively engaged, high-quality candidates will remain acute.
Early indicator: Local advertised pay for HR Coordinator roles is rising significantly — up to $47,840 metro median — tracking a national movement that may signal organizations are rebuilding administrative HR capacity after years of lean staffing. If professional and business services payroll growth in the metro (which led gains in Q1–Q2 2026) continues into fall, demand for recruiting and HRBP talent could tighten further against a market where local medians already trail national rates by 8%–27% depending on the role.
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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