Labor Market Pulse · Information Technology · October 2026
Information Technology Labor Market Report: Waco, TX MSA — October 2026
Waco's labor pool tightens while help desk pay keeps falling.
Waco unemployment dropped to 4.0% even as Help Desk pay fell to $41,071 — well below the $53,129 national figure — while Systems Administrator pay jumped to $102,925, nearly matching the national median.
Free archive edition. Published by WageScape as sent to subscribers; data as of October 2026.
Key indicators
- Waco MSA unemployment rate: 4.0% — Down from 4.3% in August, below Texas's 4.4%
- MSA employment change: -700 jobs — September decline to 142,500 total employed
- Regional average weekly wage: $1,213 — Up $19 YoY but down $49 from Q4 2025
- Texas net new tech jobs projected 2026: 32,238 — CompTIA estimate, outpacing available supply
Key takeaways
Systems Administrator pay is pulling away from the national rate.
Metro median hit $102,925, up significantly and now essentially matching the national figure of $102,503 — unusual for Waco, where most IT roles trail national medians by a wide margin. This narrowing suggests local employers are competing harder for infrastructure talent that could otherwise migrate toward Austin's expanding fab and data center buildout.
Help desk compensation is collapsing even as the labor market tightens.
Advertised pay for Help Desk/IT Support fell significantly to $41,071, well below the national $53,129, despite Waco's unemployment rate dropping to 4.0%. Declining pay in a tightening labor market is consistent with employers shifting entry-level support work toward automation, offshoring, or absorption into broader IT roles.
Network Engineer pay is stuck while every adjacent role moves.
Metro median held flat at $91,030 while Systems Administrator and Cybersecurity Analyst both posted gains — a $23,000 premium now separates local network engineering pay from cybersecurity work that didn't exist a year ago. Flat advertised pay in a tightening market may signal employers are deprioritizing dedicated network roles in favor of consolidated infrastructure or security hires.
Manufacturing's labor pull is reshaping IT hiring leverage.
With manufacturing representing 37.8% of regional employment and Versalift alone advertising 150-plus openings (job ads, a signal of hiring demand; one ad often covers several openings), IT leaders competing for the same technically skilled labor pool — electricians, controls technicians, systems talent — face upward pressure on infrastructure and support wages. Compensation benchmarking for IT support roles should account for manufacturing's wage floor alongside peer IT employers.
Median advertised pay by role — Waco, TX MSA
| Role | 25th percentile | Median advertised pay | 75th percentile | Metro trend | National median |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Data Scientist | $101,494 | $114,012 | $143,002 | Moderate decline | $145,881 |
| Systems Administrator | $76,422 | $102,925 | $124,800 | Significant increase | $102,503 |
| Network Engineer | $60,862 | $91,030 | $96,408 | Stable | $115,757 |
| Software Engineer | $112,052 | $148,050 | $163,495 | Moderate increase | $154,403 |
| Help Desk/IT Support Specialist | $36,356 | $41,071 | $44,802 | Significant decline | $53,129 |
| Cybersecurity Analyst * | $85,573 | $102,924 | $118,044 | Moderate increase | $107,327 |
| IT Project Manager * | $89,852 | $115,729 | $127,085 | Stable | $118,150 |
* 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
Local market conditions
Waco's unemployment rate fell to 4.0% in September, its lowest reading since early 2026, even as total MSA employment slipped by 700 jobs to 142,500 — a combination consistent with labor force exits, not broad-based hiring strength. Manufacturing concentration at 37.8% of regional employment, anchored by Versalift's 150-plus open positions and continued L3Harris operations, keeps technical and infrastructure talent flowing toward production environments and away from general enterprise IT roles.
What it means
Falling unemployment alongside flat-to-declining headcount suggests Waco's IT labor pool is tightening from the supply side even without strong local demand growth, a dynamic that raises the cost of replacing infrastructure, security, and support staff who leave for Austin's semiconductor buildout or remote-eligible roles elsewhere. Systems Administrator pay climbing to $102,925 (up significantly) while Help Desk pay falls to $41,071 signals employers are consolidating lower-tier support functions while paying up to retain mid-level infrastructure expertise — a bifurcation that favors internal promotion for admin-level roles. Consider reviewing whether current support-desk staffing models still make sense locally, or whether outsourcing commodity support while reinvesting savings into systems administration and cybersecurity retention better matches where the market is actually tightening.
Looking ahead
Early indicator: Watch whether September's 700-job employment decline continues into October data; a second consecutive month of losses alongside falling unemployment would confirm labor force contraction, tightening the available candidate pool for infrastructure and support roles.
Emerging pressure point: Austin's semiconductor buildout continues drawing technical talent north on I-35; monitor whether Systems Administrator and Network Engineer postings in Waco show longer time-to-fill as candidates weigh Austin wage premiums against commute costs.
Worth watching: Texas's lowered Enterprise Fund thresholds (40 jobs or $5M payroll over three years) could pull smaller Waco-area tech and manufacturing firms into state incentive programs tied to retention — track whether local employers begin publicizing participation, which may signal reduced layoff risk for IT staff embedded in those operations.
Potential inflection point: Help Desk pay's significant decline against a tightening labor market is an unusual pairing; a reversal in either direction over the next two months — rising pay or accelerating automation adoption — will clarify whether Waco employers are restructuring support functions or simply suppressing entry-level pay temporarily.
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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