Labor Market Pulse · Information Technology · September 2026
Information Technology Labor Market Report: Tulsa, OK MSA — September 2026
Tulsa IT pay splits: security climbs as scientists, PMs retreat.
Tulsa's unemployment rate hit 4.6% in July and the information sector shrank 10.6% year-over-year, yet Cybersecurity Analyst pay rose to a $100,000 metro median while Data Scientist pay fell to $105,819.
Free archive edition. Published by WageScape as sent to subscribers; data as of September 2026.
Key indicators
- Tulsa MSA unemployment rate: 4.6% — Up from 4.0% in April; vs 4.1% national
- Tulsa information sector employment: -10.6% YoY — 4.2K workers, steepest metro sector decline
- Tulsa County weekly wage growth: 1.2% YoY — vs 3.2% national wage and salary growth
- Oklahoma firms planning no wage increase: >33% — Up from 15% in 2023 (KC Fed survey)
Key takeaways
Metro cybersecurity pay is diverging from a cooling local market.
Cybersecurity Analyst advertised pay rose significantly to a $100,000 metro median even as broader Tulsa employment growth slowed and the information sector shrank 10.6% year-over-year. Demand for security talent appears insulated from the metro's general softening — a signal to protect that line item even amid budget tightening elsewhere.
Data Scientist and IT Project Manager pay are pulling in opposite directions from national trends.
Metro Data Scientist median pay fell significantly to $105,819, well below the $148,250 national figure, while IT Project Manager pay dropped moderately to $108,915 against a rising national median. This gap may reflect fewer large-scale analytics or transformation initiatives locally — worth testing against actual project pipeline before assuming it reflects candidate supply.
Rising unemployment hasn't reached systems administration roles.
Systems Administrator advertised pay rose moderately to $79,656 even as Tulsa's unemployment rate climbed to 4.6%, suggesting infrastructure-support talent remains scarce despite broader labor slack. Organizations leaning on outsourced or contract staffing for commodity IT functions should verify this assumption still holds for core systems roles.
Help desk pay compression may widen the entry-to-mid-tier gap.
Metro Help Desk/IT Support pay declined moderately to $45,641, roughly 15% below the national median of $53,644, while general IT professional pay in Oklahoma averages over $101,000. Entry-level retention economics look increasingly unfavorable compared to lateral hiring at the mid-tier — a dynamic worth factoring into internal promotion versus external hiring decisions.
Median advertised pay by role — Tulsa, OK MSA
| Role | 25th percentile | Median advertised pay | 75th percentile | Metro trend | National median |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Data Scientist | $90,396 | $105,819 | $121,827 | Significant decline | $148,250 |
| Systems Administrator | $67,728 | $79,656 | $87,267 | Moderate increase | $101,168 |
| Network Engineer | $75,128 | $94,653 | $108,249 | Stable | $114,400 |
| Software Engineer | $93,674 | $126,626 | $138,310 | Stable | $153,652 |
| Help Desk/IT Support Specialist | $37,983 | $45,641 | $49,418 | Moderate decline | $53,644 |
| Cybersecurity Analyst | $79,139 | $100,000 | $130,000 | Significant increase | $106,790 |
| IT Project Manager | $78,029 | $108,915 | $123,764 | 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
Tulsa MSA unemployment climbed to 4.6% in July, outpacing both the Oklahoma (4.3%) and national (4.1%) rates, while the metro's information sector contracted 10.6% over the trailing twelve months — a sharper pullback than the national tech labor picture suggests. Average weekly wage growth in Tulsa County has slowed to 1.2% year-over-year, well below the 3.2% national wage and salary growth reported in the BLS Employment Cost Index, pointing to a metro-level cooling that is more pronounced than state or national trends imply.
What it means
Widening labor slack alongside information-sector contraction suggests Tulsa-area IT organizations have more leverage in headcount planning than the national narrative of tight cybersecurity and AI talent markets would indicate — but that leverage is uneven across roles. Metro advertised pay for Cybersecurity Analyst and Systems Administrator positions is rising even as Data Scientist and IT Project Manager pay has fallen significantly, signaling that local demand is bifurcating around infrastructure-security functions rather than lifting broadly. Current conditions suggest reviewing role-level advertised pay trends before assuming metro-wide softness extends to security and systems hiring — flat or declining headcount budgets may still require targeted premiums to hold specialized talent.
Looking ahead
Emerging pressure point: Tulsa's information sector has contracted 10.6% over the trailing year even as cybersecurity and systems pay rise locally. Watch whether released tech talent from information-sector layoffs begins filling infrastructure and security openings, potentially easing the premiums currently being paid for those roles.
Worth watching: Google's $3 billion Stillwater data center project sits outside the immediate Tulsa metro but draws from the same statewide cloud and infrastructure talent pool. Expect upward pressure on networking and systems administration pay in Tulsa if the project accelerates hiring before the metro's own information-sector slack absorbs it.
Potential inflection point: Tulsa's unemployment rate has risen from 4.0% in April to 4.6% in July — a faster climb than the state or national trend. If this trajectory continues into September data, it may tip local leverage further toward employers across all but the most specialized IT roles.
Early indicator: Oklahoma firms increasingly report no plans to raise wages in 2026, per Kansas City Fed surveys, even as select Tulsa IT roles post gains. Watch for a widening split between flat general compensation budgets and targeted retention spend concentrated in cybersecurity and systems talent.
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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