San Antonio job losses widen as wages stall behind Texas pace.
4.5%
Metro unemployment rate
vs 4.0-4.4% Texas statewide range, Aug 2026
1.3%
Metro wage growth
vs 2.9% Texas, 3.5% U.S., June 2026
-1,600
Employed workers, year-over-year
while Austin added 7,500 jobs, Aug 2026
-2.7%
Government sector employment
year-over-year, San Antonio MSA
This Month's Takeaways
01
San Antonio wage growth is decoupling from the state story.
At 1.3% year-over-year through June, local wage growth sits less than half the Texas rate of 2.9% and well under the national 3.5% figure. That gap, sustained over several months, is consistent with softer local demand for labor rather than a temporary blip and warrants tracking alongside consumer spending data.
02
Government and information losses are doing more damage than headline unemployment suggests.
A 4.5% unemployment rate looks unremarkable next to the state's 4.0-4.4% range, but it masks a 2.7% government payroll decline and a 6.6% drop in information-sector employment. Both sectors have historically anchored stable, higher-wage activity in San Antonio, so their contraction changes the composition of local income even where the topline rate holds steady.
03
Construction and logistics are the metro's counterweight, not its whole story.
Mining/construction (9.6%), professional/business services (8.9%), and leisure/hospitality (4.0%) growth rates are genuinely strong and track Texas's broader construction boom. But these gains are concentrated in sectors less exposed to wage growth than the ones contracting, which may explain why aggregate metro wage growth hasn't kept pace despite job creation.
04
Austin's gain looks like San Antonio's loss, at least this month.
Austin added 7,500 jobs in the same period San Antonio lost 1,600 employed workers, a contrast regional economic development officials will want contextualized rather than ignored. Whether this reflects a durable shift in corridor investment or a one-month statistical noise point is the open question for the next quarter.
Local Economic Conditions
San Antonio-New Braunfels shed 1,600 employed workers year-over-year through August even as the metro unemployment rate held at 4.5%, a divergence that points to softening labor demand rather than a surge of new job seekers. Wage growth has nearly stalled at 1.3% year-over-year through June, far behind Texas's 2.9% and the national 3.5% pace, while losses concentrated in information (-6.6%), education and health services (-6.1%), and government (-2.7%) offset continued expansion in construction, professional and business services, and logistics.
Open Threads in the Data
Wage growth running roughly two percentage points behind the state average signals that local purchasing power is eroding faster here than in peer Texas metros, a dynamic that touches consumer spending at retailers, restaurants, and service businesses across the metro regardless of sector. Government payroll contraction and information-sector weakness suggest the public-sector and tech-adjacent cushion that once stabilized the regional economy is thinning, even as construction and logistics growth point to tangible, broad-based momentum elsewhere. Commerce leaders evaluating expansion or investment timing may want to weigh San Antonio's sector-level divergence against Austin's stronger July-August job gains before assuming metro-wide softness is uniform.
Advertised Pay Indicators · WageScape Benchmark 25 Jobs
Job postings data for the San Antonio, TX MSA metro — median advertised pay, its recent trend, and the number of active postings behind each figure. Jobs are grouped for readability and are not the same as the 10 sector classifications on the next page. For additional job detail contact WageScape.
Retail Trade
| Retail Sales Associate |
$30,000 |
→ Stable |
6,833 |
| Retail Cashier |
$27,040 |
→ Stable |
3,327 |
Transportation & Warehousing
| Warehouse/Fulfillment Associate |
$34,320 |
→ Stable |
1,857 |
| CDL Truck Driver |
$78,000 |
→ Stable |
7,223 |
| Delivery Driver |
$32,911 |
→ Stable |
5,640 |
| Warehouse Manager |
$70,237 |
↓ Significant decline |
93 |
Construction
| Construction Laborer |
$36,400 |
→ Stable |
390 |
Construction/Skilled Trades
| Electrician |
$69,224 |
↑ Significant increase |
1,991 |
| HVAC Technician |
$69,273 |
↑ Significant increase |
527 |
Manufacturing
| Manufacturing Production Worker/Assembler |
$34,216 |
→ Stable |
882 |
Cross-Sector
| Customer Service Representative |
$38,475 |
→ Stable |
2,972 |
| Operations Manager |
$76,011 |
→ Stable |
14 |
Leisure & Hospitality
| Food Service Worker |
$31,686 |
→ Stable |
353 |
Healthcare
| Certified Nursing Assistant / Home Health Aide |
$36,400 |
→ Stable |
3,849 |
| Registered Nurse |
$88,096 |
↑ Moderate increase |
21,101 |
Admin/Office Support
| Administrative Assistant/Office Clerk |
$38,822 |
→ Stable |
2,340 |
Information/Technology
| Software Engineer |
$136,848 |
→ Stable |
1,206 |
| Data Engineer |
$122,227 |
→ Stable |
671 |
Professional & Business Services
| Accountant |
$65,014 |
→ Stable |
1,375 |
| HR Generalist/Manager |
$63,864 |
→ Stable |
392 |
| Marketing Specialist |
$60,000 |
→ Stable |
151 |
| Business Analyst |
$91,201 |
↓ Moderate decline |
1,019 |
Finance & Insurance
| Financial Analyst |
$84,280 |
↑ Moderate increase |
458 |
Government/Education
| Elementary/Secondary School Teacher |
$53,744 |
↑ Significant increase |
9,235 |
Cross-Sector Sales
| Account Manager |
$89,654 |
↑ Significant increase |
2,192 |
Industry Snapshot · San Antonio, TX MSA
Advertised pay and job-posting trends across the whole metro economy, rolled up by employer industry — not just the bellwether roles above.
| Sector |
Median Pay Change |
Job Postings Change |
| Construction |
→ +2.6% |
↑ +17.1% |
| Manufacturing |
↑ +20.8% |
→ −1.7% |
| Retail Trade |
↑ +6.5% |
↑ +11.4% |
| Transportation, Warehousing & Utilities |
→ +2.0% |
↑ +25.6% |
| Information |
↑ +10.3% |
↑ +28.3% |
| Financial Activities |
→ −3.0% |
↑ +19.9% |
| Professional & Business Services |
↑ +22.5% |
↑ +12.0% |
| Education & Health Services |
↑ +13.4% |
↑ +15.5% |
| Leisure & Hospitality |
→ −1.8% |
↑ +9.2% |
| Government |
↑ +19.7% |
→ +0.7% |
Looking Ahead · Next 30–60 Days
Potential inflection point
Watch whether San Antonio's wage growth gap versus Texas (1.3% vs 2.9%) narrows or widens in the next BLS release. A continued widening would support a structural, not cyclical, reading of the metro's underperformance.
Early indicator
Government payroll contraction (-2.7% year-over-year) bears monitoring against federal workforce reduction announcements nationally; San Antonio's sizable federal and military employment base makes it more exposed than most Texas metros to further federal downsizing.
Worth watching
Construction's 9.6% growth rate tracks statewide momentum tied to data center and infrastructure activity. Confirm whether this pace holds through fall or reflects project-specific timing that could taper.
Emerging pressure point
Information sector employment down 6.6-7.7% locally, against a national information-sector contraction, suggests this is a shared structural trend rather than a San Antonio-specific event, worth distinguishing from locally-driven causes when communicating to stakeholders.
Sources & Methodology
Pay and hiring data provided by WageScape. See every source cited in this report, with links →
Advertised pay reflects the pay ranges employers publish in active job postings in this metro, not survey or payroll data. Pay trends compare the current period with the prior period for the same metro and role. Sector figures group postings by the employer's industry classification; sectors with limited classified postings are marked as such rather than estimated. This briefing is independent of, and complements, official statistics from the BLS and state labor market information offices.
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