Is Administrative & Office Support a Good Job Market in Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington, TX?

Executive Verdict

Market rating: competitive | Confidence: Medium

Dallas-Fort Worth is still producing a meaningful volume of Administrative & Office Support openings, with more than 1,500 postings across more than 900 companies observed over the last 90 days.[1] The broader metro economy remains large, with 4,319,500 total nonfarm jobs in February 2026 and a 4.1% unemployment rate.[2][3] But the category itself is tighter than it looks at first glance: Texas-wide Administrative & Office Support employment was down 1.0% year over year in April 2026 and postings were down 7.6%.[4][5] That makes this a workable market for prepared candidates, but not one where generic applications travel far.

Best positioned: Candidates who pair core admin skills with enterprise software, executive support, or document-management experience have the best odds right now, as shown by recent Lockheed Martin and UNT postings calling for MS Office, SAP, and records/content systems.[6][7]

Main caution: The biggest misconception is that this is a remote-friendly category in Dallas; about 95% of local postings are on-site, with only about 5% each hybrid and remote.[8]

What Changed Recently

• Texas-wide Administrative & Office Support postings were down 7.6% year over year in April 2026, while employment in the occupation was down 1.0%.[5][4]: That points to a tighter funnel behind the large Dallas job market: openings exist, but the category is softer than a year ago.
• Recent local postings show more system-specific requirements: Lockheed Martin's Fort Worth senior admin role asked for MS Office Suite and SAP, and UNT's Denton office support role asked for Microsoft Office, EIS, u.achieve, and Perceptive Content.[6][7]: Generic clerical resumes are losing ground to candidates who can show real software, records, or executive-support workflows.
• Local work arrangements remain overwhelmingly in-person, with about 95% of postings on-site and only about 5% each hybrid and remote.[8]: If you are filtering for remote-only admin work, you are screening yourself out of most of the market.
• National job openings totaled 6866 thousand in March 2026 and were down -1.2371% year over year, while national payroll growth was just 0.1584% year over year in April 2026.[12][11]: The wider economy is still hiring, but slowly, so Dallas employers can take longer to decide and ask for closer matches.
• April brought metro-area WARN notices from Exxon Mobil affecting 400 employees, FreshRealm affecting 161 employees, and Green Bay Converting filing a notice with the count not specified.[14][15][16]: These are not Administrative & Office Support-specific cuts, but they reinforce a more cautious local employer mood.

What This Means for You

Entry-Level Candidates

Difficulty: Moderate to high. There are many openings, but a lot of them are basic on paper and still screen hard on reliability, customer handling, and office software.

Best target: On-site front desk, office support associate, admin coordinator, and scheduling-heavy roles at larger employers and institutions.

Biggest mistake: Applying with a generic resume that lists duties instead of showing speed, accuracy, customer interaction, and software used.

Next step: Build two resume versions in the next two weeks: one for front-office/customer-facing roles and one for back-office/data-entry/records roles. Include specific software, volume handled, and any scheduling or document workflow.

Mid-Career Candidates

Difficulty: Moderate. You can stand out, but only if you look more specialized than a general admin assistant.

Best target: Senior admin, executive assistant, office manager, department coordinator, and enterprise support roles where calendar ownership, meeting support, and system fluency matter.

Biggest mistake: Competing only on years of experience instead of showing executive support scope, systems used, and examples of owning a workflow end to end.

Next step: Rework your resume around business impact: executive coverage, travel and calendar complexity, reporting support, records compliance, and the platforms you already know.

Career Switchers

Difficulty: High if your prior work does not already involve scheduling, customer interaction, documentation, or office systems.

Best target: Adjacent admin-heavy roles where your previous domain gives you context, such as patient-facing office support, recruiting coordination, or finance operations support.

Biggest mistake: Trying to hide your prior field instead of translating it into transferable office workflows.

Next step: Build proof of transferable office systems and process work fast, and if you need visa sponsorship, widen into adjacent categories early because less than 5% of local postings that state a policy mention sponsorship availability.[13]

Salary Reality

moderate pay broad access

Observed local posted salary ranges center on about $45k to $60k, with a broader 25th-75th band of about $38k to $75k; hourly postings center on about $18 to $20 / hour.[21][22] As lower-end local anchors, Robert Half projects a $42,000/year 25th-percentile starting salary for administrative assistants in Dallas, while a recent UNT Office Support Associate posting listed $31,720.[23][7]

This is mostly a moderate-pay market, not a premium-pay one: Texas new-opening pay for Administrative & Office Support averaged about $49,325 in April 2026, well below the Texas all-occupation average of about $74,898.[24]

The upside is access—high school-level requirements are more common than bachelor's degrees in postings that specify education, and about 75% of the local role mix is entry level—but that also keeps many openings clustered in the middle of the pay range.[25][26][21]

Best-paying path: The strongest pay tends to sit in executive assistant and office manager tracks, where national 2026 benchmarks put executive assistant pay around $70,250 and office manager pay around $60,500, and recent Fort Worth demand included a senior executive-support posting at Lockheed Martin.[27][6]

Caution: Do not read the top of the salary band as typical for the whole category; higher-paying executive support roles are a smaller slice of the market, with only about 10% of local postings at senior level.[21][26]

Where the Opportunities Are Concentrated

Opportunity is spread across a long tail rather than one dominant employer. Over the last 90 days, more than 1,500 postings were observed across more than 900 companies in Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington, and the sample looks fragmented rather than concentrated.[1][17] Among named employers, Domino's Pizza stands out with more than 100 postings, but most of the market sits outside a single marquee company.[18] The category is not evenly spread across all office environments. In the local sample, healthcare accounts for about 25% of postings, hospitality about 20%, healthcare services about 15%, food and beverage about 10%, and retail about 10%.[9] That suggests the most practical targets are high-volume, customer-facing office settings such as front desk, scheduling, intake, and general office coordination, especially when kept separate from medical billing, coding, and records-specialist paths.[9] Larger organizations matter more than small businesses here. About 55% of postings in the sample come from enterprise employers, and recent role examples from Lockheed Martin, the University of North Texas, and Tarrant County show that defense, higher education, and local government all use formal online application processes and system-heavy workflows.[19][6][7][20]

• Healthcare and patient-facing office support (high): Healthcare and healthcare services together account for about 40% of local postings, which is where front desk, intake, scheduling, and general office support appear most concentrated.[9]
• Enterprise administrative and executive support (high): About 55% of local postings come from enterprise employers, and recent demand includes Lockheed Martin's Fort Worth senior admin opening with MS Office and SAP requirements.[19][6]
• Public sector and higher-education office support (moderate): UNT posted an Office Support Associate role at $31,720 with TRS eligibility, and Tarrant County directs applicants through an online application system for vacancies.[7][20]
• Remote-only administrative roles (limited): Only about 5% of local postings are remote, so this is the weakest segment to build your search around.[8]

Where to focus: Prioritize on-site roles at enterprise and institution-heavy employers where customer service plus systems fluency can separate you from generic applicants.

Skills and Credentials Worth Pursuing

• Customer service (table stakes): It shows up in about 40% of local postings and is also emphasized in a recent UNT office support role.[28][7]
• Communication (table stakes): Communication appears in about 35% of local postings, and national administrative research still ranks written and verbal communication among the top skills.[28][29]
• Microsoft Office / MS Office Suite (table stakes): Recent Dallas-area examples from Lockheed Martin and UNT both require Microsoft Office skills.[6][7]
• Data entry and attention to detail (table stakes): Data entry appears in about 15% of local postings, while attention to detail shows up in about 20%.[28]
• SAP / ERP familiarity (differentiator): Lockheed Martin's Fort Worth senior admin posting specifically listed SAP knowledge as a desired skill.[6]
• Records management and document digitization (differentiator): UNT required scanning, records management, and Perceptive Content proficiency, showing demand for document-heavy workflows beyond basic reception.[7]
• Executive support for multiple leaders (premium): A recent Fort Worth senior admin role was designed to support three executives, which is a different skill tier than general office support.[6]

Adjacent Roles to Consider

• Patient Access Representative / Medical Front Office (both): Local demand is concentrated in healthcare-related office settings, which make up about 25% of postings in healthcare plus about 15% in healthcare services, and the transfer is strongest for front desk, scheduling, and intake work rather than billing or coding.[9]
• HR / Recruiting Coordinator (pivot): This fits admins who already manage calendars, communication, scheduling, and confidential documents.
• Accounts Payable / Receivables Clerk (pivot): A good option if your admin experience is already spreadsheet-heavy, records-heavy, or vendor-facing.
• Project Coordinator (bridge): This is a natural bridge for admins who already run meetings, track follow-ups, and keep cross-functional work moving.

30 / 60 / 90-Day Plan

First 30 Days

• Create two targeted resumes: one for front-office/customer-facing admin work and one for executive/back-office support.
• Build a short software proof set: Microsoft Excel, Outlook, calendar management, document scanning, and one enterprise or content-management tool you can name confidently.
• Make a target list of 30 on-site employers in healthcare, hospitality, higher education, government, and enterprise offices, then apply through their own career portals rather than quick-apply only.
• Rewrite your recent experience into workflow bullets: scheduling volume, records handled, customer interactions, executive support, and systems used.

Days 31-60

• Add one specialization layer based on the jobs you actually see: SAP/ERP basics, document management, or patient-intake workflow.
• Run a weekly application sprint by segment instead of title alone: healthcare front office, enterprise admin, and public or campus support.
• Collect proof of reliability for interviews: attendance record, turnaround speed, error reduction, meeting coordination, or customer-handling examples.
• If your search is stalled, widen into adjacent roles where your domain background gives you credibility faster than starting over in generic admin.

Days 61-90

• If you are still not getting traction, choose a lane and commit: executive support, healthcare front office, HR coordination, finance operations support, or project coordination.
• Build one portfolio-style evidence pack with templates, process docs, spreadsheet samples, or sanitized calendar and workflow examples.
• Shift from volume applying to conversion tracking: which titles, industries, and employers actually return interviews, and double down there.
• For remote-only seekers, decide whether to relax location or pivot category, because the local market is overwhelmingly on-site.

Methodology and Confidence

This April 2026 report was generated on May 10, 2026. Latest direct national data: April 2026. Latest direct Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington, TX data: May 2026.

Confidence: Overall confidence: Medium. Based on 3 local evidence items and 10 proxy signals. Some conclusions require category-level inference.

Limitations

• Dallas-Fort Worth does not have a single direct metro-by-occupation government series here for Administrative & Office Support hiring, so some demand direction is inferred from Texas-wide occupation data and local employer posting patterns rather than one official local count.
• This category is broad, and the representative titles used here are approximations; nearby work such as medical billing and coding, payroll, warehouse clerks, and HR assistants can follow different job markets than general office support.
• The Callings.ai job database is a partial, deduplicated sample of online postings, so demand direction, leading employer names, and skill patterns are more reliable than exact posting counts or precise employer shares.
• Some local pay evidence comes from individual job postings and salary guides, which can reflect a narrow employer, a specific sub-role, or a projected rate rather than the typical offer across the whole metro.
• Recent layoff notices in the metro were not tagged to Administrative & Office Support specifically, so they should be read as general caution signals for local employers, not direct proof that admin roles are being cut at the same rate.

References

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