{"schema_version": 1, "id": "tx-nonmetropolitan-area/information-technology/2026-10", "product": "Labor Market Pulse", "metro": {"geography_id": 332, "label": "TX NONMETROPOLITAN AREA", "slug": "tx-nonmetropolitan-area"}, "focus_area": {"key": "information_technology", "slug": "information-technology", "label": "Information Technology"}, "period": "2026-10", "public_after": "2026-10-01", "frozen_at": "2026-11-03T03:34:45.012650+00:00", "headline": "Northeast Texas IT pay splits: infrastructure up, support down.", "headline_summary": "Metro Network Engineer pay rose to $112,086 while Help Desk/IT Support pay fell to $51,424, against a Texas unemployment rate climbing to 4.4% and statewide wage growth outpacing the nation at 4.5%.", "key_indicators": [{"label": "Texas unemployment rate", "value": "4.4%", "context": "vs 4.1% national, up from 4.1% year-ago"}, {"label": "Texas wage growth", "value": "4.5% YoY", "context": "vs 3.1% national (Dallas Fed, Aug 2026)"}, {"label": "Texas tech job gap", "value": "32,238 net new jobs projected", "context": "CompTIA estimate outpacing labor supply"}, {"label": "Texas WARN layoffs YTD", "value": "17,285 workers", "context": "down 35% from 2025 through October"}], "takeaways": [{"headline": "Network Engineer pay is climbing faster locally than Systems Administrator pay.", "body": "Metro Network Engineer advertised pay rose to $112,086 (up, moderate) while Systems Administrator pay held flat at $94,461 against a rising national median of $102,503. This divergence suggests infrastructure complexity is the factor employers are paying to retain, regardless of headcount volume \u2014 a signal for leaders weighing network versus general sysadmin hires."}, {"headline": "Cybersecurity pay is stalling locally while national demand accelerates.", "body": "Cybersecurity Analyst advertised pay is stable at $100,702 in the metro versus an upward national median of $107,327. A widening gap of this kind is consistent with constrained local security budgets or a shallow regional candidate pool, both of which raise the case for managed security service engagement over local hiring."}, {"headline": "Help desk pay declines point toward outsourcing substitution.", "body": "Metro Help Desk/IT Support pay fell to $51,424, tracking a national decline \u2014 a pattern consistent with routine support work increasingly shifting offshore or to remote providers, especially with 41% of technologists nationally willing to trade salary for remote flexibility. Local leaders backfilling tier-1 support roles should weigh current advertised rates against outsourcing costs before committing to in-house hires."}, {"headline": "Austin's fab buildout is a quiet drain on Northeast Texas infrastructure talent.", "body": "Statewide semiconductor expansion is pulling experienced infrastructure and operations staff toward Central Texas fab projects, tightening an already thin nonmetro talent pool. Sulphur Springs employers may find hybrid or remote infrastructure roles more competitive than on-site positions that compete directly with fab-adjacent pay scales."}], "local_conditions": "Sulphur Springs sits within a nonmetro Northeast Texas labor pool where statewide forces dominate: Texas unemployment climbed to 4.4% in September against a national 4.1%, and the state's 4.5% year-over-year wage growth outpaces the national 3.1% pace, according to Dallas Fed data. Regional IT hiring here is shaped less by local tech employers than by statewide dynamics \u2014 a 32,238 projected net new tech job gap in Texas this year, Austin's semiconductor buildout pulling infrastructure talent toward Central Texas, and a productivity-first posture among Texas firms that grew output in 2025 without adding headcount.", "implications": "Thin local IT labor supply in a nonmetro market means Sulphur Springs organizations compete against better-resourced Austin, Dallas and Houston employers for the same infrastructure, network and security talent pool, while statewide wage growth of 4.5% raises the floor on what retention requires. Build-vs-buy decisions tilt further toward outsourcing or MSP arrangements for commodity support and help desk functions \u2014 local Help Desk/IT Support advertised pay, drawn from job ads that signal hiring demand (one ad often covers several openings), sits at $51,424, down against national trends, signaling employers may be deprioritizing in-house junior support roles in favor of remote or outsourced models. Consider evaluating whether infrastructure and security headcount budgeted for local hires would deliver more value redirected toward hybrid cloud management or regional MSP contracts given the talent gap.", "looking_ahead": [{"category": "Expected", "body": "Texas Workforce Commission's October metro and county-level LAUS data releases in coming weeks should clarify whether the statewide uptick to 4.4% unemployment is showing up in Northeast Texas county figures, which lag state releases by several weeks."}, {"category": "Emerging pressure point", "body": "Texas Responsible Artificial Intelligence Governance Act compliance requirements for AI-driven applicant screening took effect this year \u2014 IT leaders overseeing talent acquisition systems should track enforcement guidance as it affects any automated screening tools in use."}, {"category": "Worth watching", "body": "National tech layoffs have already exceeded 133,000 workers through October, surpassing all of 2025. Watch whether released talent from larger Texas metros begins appearing in the Northeast Texas remote candidate pool, which could ease local sourcing pressure on network and security roles."}, {"category": "Potential inflection point", "body": "Texas Enterprise Fund reform proposals would lower job-creation thresholds to 40 jobs or $5M payroll for tech and AI firms, a change that could extend state incentive eligibility to smaller employers in nonmetro regions like Sulphur Springs over the next legislative cycle."}], "roles": [{"role": "Data Scientist", "data_scope": "metro", "metro_p25": 119447.0, "metro_p50": 147765.8, "metro_p75": 164060.0, "metro_trend_direction": "up", "metro_trend_magnitude": "moderate", "national_p50": 145881.0, "national_trend_direction": "stable", "national_trend_magnitude": "stable"}, {"role": "Systems Administrator", "data_scope": "metro", "metro_p25": 77014.0, "metro_p50": 94461.0, "metro_p75": 105778.0, "metro_trend_direction": "stable", "metro_trend_magnitude": "stable", "national_p50": 102503.0, "national_trend_direction": "up", "national_trend_magnitude": "moderate"}, {"role": "Network Engineer", "data_scope": "metro", "metro_p25": 79285.25, "metro_p50": 112086.0, "metro_p75": 125000.0, "metro_trend_direction": "up", "metro_trend_magnitude": "moderate", "national_p50": 115757.0, "national_trend_direction": "up", "national_trend_magnitude": "moderate"}, {"role": "Software Engineer", "data_scope": "metro", "metro_p25": 115400.75, "metro_p50": 153924.0, "metro_p75": 170000.0, "metro_trend_direction": "stable", "metro_trend_magnitude": "stable", "national_p50": 154403.0, "national_trend_direction": "stable", "national_trend_magnitude": "stable"}, {"role": "Help Desk/IT Support Specialist", "data_scope": "metro", "metro_p25": 40449.0, "metro_p50": 51424.0, "metro_p75": 59681.0, "metro_trend_direction": "down", "metro_trend_magnitude": "moderate", "national_p50": 53129.0, "national_trend_direction": "down", "national_trend_magnitude": "moderate"}, {"role": "Cybersecurity Analyst", "data_scope": "metro", "metro_p25": 84398.0, "metro_p50": 100702.0, "metro_p75": 118044.0, "metro_trend_direction": "stable", "metro_trend_magnitude": "stable", "national_p50": 107327.0, "national_trend_direction": "up", "national_trend_magnitude": "moderate"}, {"role": "IT Project Manager", "data_scope": "metro", "metro_p25": 86920.0, "metro_p50": 115230.0, "metro_p75": 126193.0, "metro_trend_direction": "stable", "metro_trend_magnitude": "stable", "national_p50": 118149.8, "national_trend_direction": "stable", "national_trend_magnitude": "stable"}], "industry_snapshot": [], "citations": [], "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.", "edition_label": "November 2026", "files": {"html": "tx-nonmetropolitan-area/information-technology/2026-10.html", "pdf": "tx-nonmetropolitan-area/information-technology/2026-10.pdf"}, "published_at": "2026-11-03T08:31:36.154451+00:00", "report_html_url": "https://reports.wagescape.com/archive/v1/editions/tx-nonmetropolitan-area/information-technology/2026-10.html", "report_pdf_url": "https://reports.wagescape.com/archive/v1/editions/tx-nonmetropolitan-area/information-technology/2026-10.pdf"}