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Labor Market Pulse
Wichita Falls, TX Metro Edition
Focus: IT
Wichita Falls IT pay rises as the broader metro economy contracts.
4.5%
Metro unemployment rate
Up from 3.9% a year ago; vs 4.0% statewide
-1.2% YoY
Metro nonfarm employment change
One of only two contracting Texas metros
$111,509
Network Engineer advertised pay
Up significantly; above $114,400 national median
4.8% YoY
Texas manufacturing wage growth
Strongest pace since Dec. 2023 (Dallas Fed)
This Month's Takeaways
A shrinking metro economy is not shrinking IT pay uniformly.
Wichita Falls lost 700 jobs year-over-year even as Network Engineer advertised pay rose significantly to $111,509, actually outpacing the national median. Infrastructure talent scarcity appears to be decoupling from the metro's broader employment contraction.
Help desk wages are stuck, and that is strategically useful.
Advertised pay for Help Desk/IT Support sits flat at $47,674, nearly $6,000 under the national figure, with no upward signal this month. Flat commodity-role pay in a softening labor market supports shifting these functions toward contract staffing without retention risk.
Cybersecurity demand is rising locally, but off a smaller base.
Cybersecurity Analyst advertised pay moved up moderately to $103,212 locally, trailing the national $106,790, even as statewide data shows senior security leaders commanding $170K–$230K in larger Texas metros. Wichita Falls employers competing for security talent face a widening gap against Dallas and Austin pay ceilings, raising retention risk for any locally based specialist.
Manufacturing-linked IT roles look like the metro's real growth story.
Howmet Aerospace and Pratt & Whitney activity, alongside statewide manufacturing wage growth of 4.8% — the strongest since 2023 — suggests infrastructure and OT-adjacent IT roles tied to advanced manufacturing are the metro's actual demand driver, not conventional office IT headcount.
Local Labor Conditions
Wichita Falls MSA employment contracted 1.2% year-over-year through August 2026, one of only two shrinking metros in Texas, while unemployment climbed to 4.5% against a statewide 4.0% rate, reflecting a local economy dependent on manufacturing and defense-adjacent employment rather than the data center and AI-driven expansion lifting Austin and Dallas. Network Engineer pay rose significantly (up to $111,509 metro median) even as broader metro hiring softened, consistent with aerospace and advanced manufacturing employers like Howmet Aerospace and Pratt & Whitney competing for scarce infrastructure talent in a metro too small to absorb specialized losses quietly.
Leadership & Talent Implications
Metro-level contraction does not mean IT demand is contracting evenly — Network Engineer pay moving up significantly against a stable-to-moderate statewide and national pattern suggests a thin local bench for infrastructure and connectivity roles tied to manufacturing automation and base-adjacent contracts, while Help Desk pay sits flat at $47,674, nearly $6,000 below the national median, signaling commodity support roles face no comparable pressure. Build-vs-buy calculus should tilt toward retaining and paying up for scarce network and systems talent locally while sourcing help desk and tier-1 support through contract or remote arrangements where the metro's shrinking labor pool offers no cost advantage. Consider reviewing network engineering compensation against the metro's significant upward movement before the next hiring cycle, rather than assuming statewide moderate trends apply locally.
