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Labor Market Pulse
San Angelo, TX Metro Edition
Focus: IT
San Angelo's tight labor market is pricing up infrastructure roles.
3.6%
Metro unemployment rate
vs 4.1% national, 4.0% Texas statewide
62,200
Civilian labor force
~60,000 employed, 2,300 unemployed
14,592
Texas WARN-affected workers
Down 45% vs 2025, 91 notices filed
$22.91/hr
Tom Green County median wage
Avg $24.64/hr; below statewide avg weekly $1,646
This Month's Takeaways
Network Engineer pay is moving faster than the role's national peer.
Metro median advertised pay for Network Engineer rose significantly to $117,100, above the $114,400 national figure and moving at a faster clip. That local acceleration in a tight-labor metro may suggest employers bidding up scarce infrastructure talent rather than reacting to a one-off posting spike.
Help Desk pay jumped locally while the national rate held still.
Local Help Desk/IT Support advertised pay rose significantly even as the national figure stayed flat, narrowing the gap between San Angelo ($45,760) and the national median ($53,644). Consider whether this reflects genuine wage compression for entry-level IT roles or simply local employers competing harder for a thin pool of available workers.
Cybersecurity demand is structural, not a passing blip.
Texas security analyst roles project 29% growth through 2034, and metro cybersecurity advertised pay is up moderately to $103,212 — still below the $106,790 national figure, leaving room to run. Organizations retaining security talent locally should expect continued upward pressure rather than a plateau.
Software Engineer pay is stable, but that may not last.
Metro Software Engineer pay at $152,465 sits above the $153,652 national median with moderate local movement, even as Texas's information sector contracted 5.3% over the year statewide. Stability here looks more like a function of thin local supply than reduced demand for the skillset.
Local Labor Conditions
San Angelo's unemployment rate sits at 3.6%, second-lowest among Texas metros and well below the 4.1% national rate, reflecting a labor force stretched thin across 62,200 workers rather than surging hiring demand. Tight local supply, not weak employer appetite, appears to be the binding constraint — a dynamic distinct from the statewide pattern where Austin's AI and semiconductor expansion is pulling talent from secondary metros like San Angelo.
Leadership & Talent Implications
Thin local labor supply changes the build-vs-buy calculus for San Angelo IT leaders: specialized roles in network engineering and cybersecurity are harder to fill locally than the advertised pay data alone suggests, since a 3.6% unemployment rate leaves little bench of passive candidates. Outsourcing or remote/hybrid sourcing for infrastructure and security functions may now be more economically rational than competing for scarce local talent against Austin's premium pay scales. Consider evaluating which cloud and security positions can be sourced regionally or remotely before committing to local headcount expansion.
