Labor Market Pulse · Information Technology · September 2026
Information Technology Labor Market Report: San Antonio, TX MSA — September 2026
San Antonio IT pay diverges sharply from a soft metro labor market.
Metro unemployment sits at 4.5% and overall wages grew just 1.3% year-over-year, yet Systems Administrator and Network Engineer advertised pay both posted significant gains — a split IT leaders should not ignore.
Free archive edition. Published by WageScape as sent to subscribers; data as of September 2026.
Key indicators
- Metro unemployment rate: 4.5% — vs 4.0% Texas, 4.1% U.S. (August 2026)
- Metro wage growth: 1.3% YoY — vs 2.9% Texas, 3.5% U.S. (June 2026)
- Information sector employment: down 6.6–7.7% — Steepest sector decline in metro, YoY
- Metro average hourly wage: $32.75 — up 3.7% YoY despite soft overall growth
Key takeaways
Systems Administrator pay is rising while the role nationally flattens.
Metro Systems Administrator pay climbed significantly to $100,225, converging with the national median of $101,168 even as national growth there is merely moderate. This narrowing gap may signal local employers competing harder for infrastructure talent precisely as the broader metro labor market softens elsewhere.
Information sector contraction isn't translating into cheaper IT labor.
Information employment fell 6.6–7.7% over the year, yet Network Engineer and Systems Administrator pay both moved up significantly rather than easing. Job losses appear concentrated in commodity or legacy roles, not the infrastructure specializations driving current hiring.
Help Desk pay decline looks like the start of a broader repricing.
Metro Help Desk/IT Support pay fell moderately to $47,840, already $5,800 below the national median, consistent with national signals that AI adoption and support consolidation are compressing demand for entry-tier IT labor. Build-vs-buy decisions for tier-1 support functions warrant fresh evaluation given this local pay compression.
IT Project Manager pay softening cuts against the national trend.
Metro IT Project Manager pay declined moderately to $110,855 while the national median rose moderately to $117,530, a gap that may reflect fewer large-scale local transformation initiatives amid federal and information-sector pullback. Organizations should evaluate whether this reflects genuinely lower local demand or a temporary pause in project-based hiring.
Median advertised pay by role — San Antonio, TX MSA
| Role | 25th percentile | Median advertised pay | 75th percentile | Metro trend | National median |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Data Scientist | $107,657 | $129,673 | $150,327 | Stable | $148,250 |
| Systems Administrator | $77,201 | $100,225 | $106,527 | Significant increase | $101,168 |
| Network Engineer | $83,502 | $114,470 | $124,726 | Significant increase | $114,400 |
| Software Engineer | $105,437 | $136,848 | $150,925 | Stable | $153,652 |
| Help Desk/IT Support Specialist | $41,600 | $47,840 | $52,624 | Moderate decline | $53,644 |
| Cybersecurity Analyst | $90,000 | $112,338 | $125,001 | Moderate increase | $106,790 |
| IT Project Manager | $85,529 | $110,855 | $124,602 | Moderate decline | $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
San Antonio-New Braunfels shed 1,600 employed workers year-over-year through August, pushing metro unemployment to 4.5% while overall wage growth lagged badly at 1.3% year-over-year in June versus 2.9% statewide and 3.5% nationally. Information sector employment fell 6.6–7.7% over the year, reflecting federal government contraction and broader tech-adjacent softness, even as logistics, health care, and professional/business services continued expanding.
What it means
Metro-wide wage stagnation masks a bifurcated IT labor market: infrastructure and security roles are posting significant advertised pay gains locally even as the broader metro economy cools, suggesting specialized technical talent is largely insulated from the information-sector downturn dragging down aggregate wage figures. This divergence strengthens the case for outsourcing commodity support functions — where Help Desk pay is down moderately and metro pay already trails the national median by over $5,800 — while protecting headcount and pay investment in network engineering and systems administration roles seeing sustained demand. Consider reviewing compensation structures role-by-role rather than relying on metro-wide wage trends, which currently understate pressure in infrastructure-adjacent specializations.
Looking ahead
Worth watching: San Antonio's 4.5% unemployment rate compares unfavorably to Austin's 3.7% and Dallas's 4.1%, raising the question of whether displaced information-sector workers migrate toward Austin's AI/semiconductor hiring boom rather than backfilling San Antonio's infrastructure roles.
Emerging pressure point: Government employment in the metro dropped 2.7–3.1% over the year, likely tied to federal reductions; watch whether released public-sector IT and cybersecurity talent enters the local candidate pool and eases pressure on Cybersecurity Analyst pay, currently up moderately to $112,338.
Potential inflection point: Texas Workforce Commission reports over 10,800 open software developer positions statewide even as San Antonio Software Engineer pay holds flat at $136,848. A continued gap between statewide demand and flat local pay may force a local correction in the next one to two quarters.
Expected: Texas's statewide wage growth acceleration (3.5% to 4.0% between March and June) has not yet reached San Antonio's 1.3% figure; expect state-level wage pressure to gradually narrow this gap, particularly in roles with cross-metro mobility like Network Engineer and Data Scientist.
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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