Metro Job Market Pulse · General Market Conditions · September 2026
General Market Conditions Labor Market Report: Tulsa, OK MSA — September 2026
Tulsa jobs grow, but wages and unemployment move the wrong way.
Tulsa's unemployment rate rose to 4.6% in July — above both the Oklahoma (4.3%) and national (4.1%) rates — while metro wage growth of just 1.2% trailed the state's 3.6% average, even as employment expanded 1.4% year-over-year.
Free archive edition. Published by WageScape as sent to subscribers; data as of September 2026.
Key indicators
- Tulsa unemployment rate: 4.6% — vs 4.3% Oklahoma, 4.1% U.S. (July 2026)
- Tulsa wage growth: 1.2% — vs 3.6% statewide average weekly wage growth
- Tulsa employment growth: 1.4% YoY — Outpacing Oklahoma County (-0.8%), Cleveland (-0.9%)
- Information sector employment: -10.6% YoY — Steeper than national information-sector softness
Key takeaways
Tulsa's job growth is outpacing its wage growth.
Employment rose 1.4% year-over-year even as average weekly wages grew only 1.2% — a divergence that suggests labor supply is growing faster than labor demand is pushing up pay, a sign of softening momentum beneath a headline of modest expansion.
Unemployment gap with the state is widening, not closing.
Tulsa's 4.6% July rate sits 30 basis points above Oklahoma's statewide 4.3% figure, a reversal from earlier in 2026 when the metro's labor market was comparatively tighter. Worth tracking as a signal of whether Tulsa-specific conditions, rather than a statewide trend, are driving the softening.
Healthcare and skilled trades are the bright spots in a mixed picture.
Registered nurse and electrician advertised pay both moved up moderately against metro norms, consistent with statewide data showing healthcare and transportation/warehousing as the state's strongest-growth sectors. These pockets of strength may offer the clearest signal of where local economic activity is concentrating.
Information-sector contraction is a local vulnerability, not a national one.
Tulsa's information employment fell 10.6% over the past year, a steeper decline than the national information-sector softness reported in August payrolls. Commerce leaders evaluating the metro's tech and professional-services footprint should treat this as a local data point worth independent verification.
Median advertised pay by role — Tulsa, OK MSA
| Role | 25th percentile | Median advertised pay | 75th percentile | Metro trend | National median |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Retail Sales Associate | $23,168 | $28,080 | $31,200 | Stable | $33,325 |
| Retail Cashier | $22,880 | $26,141 | $27,756 | Stable | $31,200 |
| Warehouse/Fulfillment Associate | $29,675 | $34,235 | $37,440 | Stable | $38,000 |
| CDL Truck Driver | $53,951 | $77,864 | $89,240 | Stable | $78,000 |
| Delivery Driver | $26,495 | $32,314 | $36,400 | Stable | $34,344 |
| Construction Laborer | $32,811 | $38,092 | $41,600 | Stable | $40,560 |
| Electrician | $59,588 | $70,720 | $79,040 | Moderate increase | $71,404 |
| Manufacturing Production Worker/Assembler | $32,023 | $39,470 | $42,640 | Moderate increase | $39,520 |
| Customer Service Representative | $30,084 | $35,011 | $36,400 | Stable | $39,520 |
| Food Service Worker | $25,168 | $29,035 | $32,240 | Stable | $33,756 |
| Certified Nursing Assistant / Home Health Aide | $30,492 | $34,099 | $36,400 | Stable | $41,106 |
| Administrative Assistant/Office Clerk | $31,200 | $38,480 | $41,635 | Moderate increase | $43,680 |
| HVAC Technician | $57,917 | $62,506 | $67,550 | Stable | $70,720 |
| Registered Nurse | $82,560 | $92,824 | $102,024 | Moderate increase | $102,581 |
| Software Engineer | $93,674 | $126,626 | $138,310 | Stable | $153,652 |
| Data Engineer | $82,347 | $112,575 | $134,451 | Moderate decline | $139,500 |
| Accountant | $57,042 | $70,130 | $77,667 | Stable | $72,182 |
| Financial Analyst | $70,169 | $83,251 | $89,000 | Moderate increase | $94,782 |
| HR Generalist/Manager | $51,310 | $60,000 | $75,000 | Stable | $75,000 |
| Marketing Specialist | $44,833 | $55,000 | $66,389 | Significant increase | $62,354 |
| Operations Manager | $72,953 | $72,953 | $72,953 | Significant increase | $85,216 |
| Elementary/Secondary School Teacher | $30,160 | $44,971 | $50,469 | Significant increase | $56,731 |
| Account Manager | $56,036 | $80,152 | $96,361 | Moderate increase | $92,749 |
| Warehouse Manager * | $44,124 | $48,919 | $52,774 | Significant decline | $75,000 |
| Business Analyst | $74,000 | $88,196 | $95,000 | Moderate decline | $98,279 |
* State-level figure shown where metro postings were too few.
WageScape's median is calibrated to correct for spurious low-value postings (reported as the 60th percentile of raw advertised pay). Download: CSV · JSON
Industry snapshot
| Sector | Median advertised pay | Pay trend | Postings trend |
|---|---|---|---|
| Construction | $71,604 | Significant increase | Significant increase |
| Manufacturing | $65,750 | Significant increase | Significant increase |
| Retail Trade | $34,441 | Moderate increase | Moderate increase |
| Transportation, Warehousing & Utilities | $61,747 | Moderate increase | Significant increase |
| Information | $53,900 | Moderate increase | Significant increase |
| Financial Activities | $51,918 | Moderate decline | Significant increase |
| Professional & Business Services | $62,718 | Significant increase | Significant increase |
| Education & Health Services | $58,000 | Significant increase | Significant increase |
| Leisure & Hospitality | $32,760 | Moderate increase | Moderate increase |
| Government | $60,030 | Significant increase | Significant decline |
Local market conditions
Tulsa's unemployment rate climbed to 4.6% in July 2026, outpacing both the state's 4.3% and the national 4.1% rate, even as the metro's labor force expanded and overall employment grew 1.4% year-over-year through March. Wage growth has not kept stride with that expansion — average weekly wages rose just 1.2% annually, among the weakest readings of any tracked Oklahoma county and well below the 3.6% statewide average, while a 10.6% annual contraction in information-sector employment points to a tech-adjacent soft patch within an otherwise growing labor force.
What it means
Rising local unemployment alongside labor-force growth suggests Tulsa is adding workers faster than it's adding wage-supporting demand — a pattern more consistent with a cooling-but-not-contracting economy than a boom, and one that bears on how commerce leaders read the metro's near-term capacity for expansion. Healthcare and skilled-trade pay (registered nurses up moderately, electricians up moderately) are outperforming broad metro wage trends, indicating where private investment and public workforce programs may find the most traction. Current conditions suggest monitoring whether Tulsa's wage lag against the state average narrows or widens over the next two quarters before drawing conclusions about the metro's competitive position for business investment.
Looking ahead
Worth watching: Whether Tulsa's unemployment rate stabilizes near 4.6% or continues climbing toward the statewide trend line will clarify whether July's reading was a blip or the start of a steeper local cooling.
Emerging pressure point: Wage growth across Tulsa (1.2%) lags both the statewide figure (3.6%) and Cleveland County (2.5%), raising the question of whether local purchasing power is eroding faster than in peer Oklahoma metros.
Early indicator: National information-sector job losses and Tulsa's own 10.6% information-employment contraction bear watching together — if the pattern persists, it may point to a structural rather than cyclical adjustment in the metro's tech-adjacent base.
Potential inflection point: Energy-sector activity (WTI averaging $83.90, rig count at 51) has historically been a leading indicator for Tulsa's broader economic cycle; a shift in either metric over the next two months would be an early signal worth monitoring ahead of official employment data.
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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