Labor Market Pulse

San Angelo, TX Metro Edition

Focus: RESTAURANT

San Angelo restaurant pay softens even as labor market stays tight.

3.6%

San Angelo unemployment rate

Second-lowest among Texas metros, Aug 2026

-1.5% YoY

Texas hospitality employment

vs postings up 1.3% statewide (Revelio/Callings)

3.9% YoY

Texas private hourly earnings growth

vs 3.3% national (Dallas Fed, July 2026)

673,000

National accommodation/food svc openings

Down from 916,000 at start of 2026

This Month's Takeaways

01

Line cook pay is falling in San Angelo while the labor market stays tight.

Metro Line Cook pay dropped to $29,120 (moderate decline) even as the metro unemployment rate sits at 3.6%, among the tightest in Texas. A shrinking applicant pool paired with falling advertised wages is an unusual combination that may point to operators testing wage ceilings rather than responding to softening demand.

02

Manager pay is rising locally against a national decline.

San Angelo's Restaurant Manager/GM advertised pay climbed to $50,014 while the national median fell. Localized upward pressure on management pay, even as entry roles soften, suggests retention dollars are being redirected toward the positions hardest to replace — worth weighing against statewide reports of GM-level churn.

03

Crew and Assistant Manager pay softness could widen the turnover gap.

Crew pay ($26,000, down moderately) and Assistant Restaurant Manager pay ($34,859, down significantly) are falling in a metro where leisure/hospitality is a top-three employment sector. If entry and first-step management pay keep declining while Texas hospitality employment lags postings growth, backfill costs may outpace the savings from lower advertised rates.

04

Server pay stability may mask tip-credit exposure.

Server pay holding stable at $27,040 locally reflects Texas's frozen $2.13 tipped minimum, but statewide tip-pool misconfiguration is flagged as a significant wage-hour risk for large operators. Stable advertised pay should not be read as stable compliance exposure, particularly for multi-unit operators running pooled tip structures.

Local Labor Conditions

San Angelo's unemployment rate held at a tight 3.6% in August, second-lowest among Texas metros, while leisure/hospitality remains a core local sector against a backdrop of statewide hospitality employment down 1.5% year-over-year despite postings up 1.3%. Tight overall labor supply in the metro is colliding with a restaurant-specific wage divergence — San Angelo's advertised restaurant pay is softening in several roles even as Texas private hourly earnings statewide climbed 3.9% year-over-year, suggesting local operators are not keeping pace with broader market wage momentum.

Leadership & Talent Implications

Falling advertised pay for Line Cook, Crew, and Assistant Manager roles in San Angelo — against a tight 3.6% metro jobless rate and a state where restaurants report 65% understaffing — signals operators may be pulling back on posted rates even as the labor pool stays thin, a combination that risks prolonging vacancies rather than resolving them. Restaurant Manager/GM pay moving up locally while falling nationally suggests San Angelo operators are concentrating retention investment at the leadership layer while letting entry-level BOH and FOH pay drift down; current conditions suggest reviewing whether line-level pay compression is quietly driving the backfill churn Texas operators report statewide.

Advertised Pay Indicators

Role	P25	Median	P75	Local Trend	National	Nat. Trend
Assistant Restaurant Manager	$29,191	$34,859	$45,000	↓ Significant decline	$39,000	↓ Moderate decline
Catering Manager	$35,360	$50,871	$56,706	→ Stable	$50,960	→ Stable
Crew	$22,880	$26,000	$26,642	↓ Moderate decline	$29,839	→ Stable
Line Cook	$25,119	$29,120	$30,680	↓ Moderate decline	$36,826	→ Stable
Restaurant Manager/General Manager	$43,679	$50,014	$55,511	↑ Moderate increase	$59,618	↓ Moderate decline
Server	$24,618	$27,040	$30,226	→ Stable	$35,012	→ Stable
Shift Manager	$27,300	$29,036	$29,120	→ Stable	$32,731	→ Stable

Some roles reflect state-level data where local metro sample size was insufficient.

Looking Ahead · Next 30–60 Days

Worth watching

Texas hospitality employment fell 1.5% year-over-year statewide even as postings rose 1.3% — watch whether San Angelo's falling advertised BOH pay widens or narrows that gap locally over the next two payroll cycles.

Emerging pressure point

Full-service restaurants remain 183,000 jobs below pre-pandemic staffing statewide; if San Angelo's entry-level pay keeps softening, operators may find seasonal hiring harder to backfill once school-year staffing swings hit in October.

Potential inflection point

Restaurant Manager/GM pay rising locally against a national decline is a divergence worth tracking — if it persists into October data, it may indicate San Angelo operators are structurally repricing leadership roles rather than making a one-month adjustment.

Early indicator

National accommodation and food-service job openings fell from 916,000 to 673,000 through July, a national cooling signal. Confirm whether San Angelo's own posting volume (5,144 metro-wide as of mid-2026) is tracking that national decline or holding firmer given the metro's unusually tight labor market.

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