Is Administrative & Office Support a Good Job Market in San Antonio-New Braunfels, TX?

Executive Verdict

Market rating: competitive | Confidence: High

San Antonio is still a large market for administrative work, but it is not an easy one right now. The metro had 144,930 office and administrative support jobs in May 2025, equal to 12.9% of local employment, versus 11.4% nationally.[1] Current conditions are tighter: metro unemployment was 4.5% in August 2026, Texas administrative and office support postings were down 18.6% year over year in September, and Texas occupation employment was down 0.7% year over year.[2][3][4] The best openings are showing up in narrower pockets, especially where San Antonio professional and business services employment grew 4.7742% year over year and 8.9% annualized from May to August.[5][6]

Best positioned: Candidates who combine customer-facing admin experience with Excel, Microsoft Office, data entry, and comfort with AI-assisted workflows—and who are open to on-site roles—have the best odds right now.[7][8][9][10]

Main caution: Do not mistake this for a remote-friendly generalist market: about 90% of sampled openings were on-site, only about 5% were remote, and employers are shifting from broad clerical roles toward more specialized support positions.[8][11]

What Changed Recently

• San Antonio's unemployment rate reached 4.5% in August 2026, up from 4.3% a year earlier.[2]: That raises applicant competition for broad administrative assistant, receptionist, and general office roles.
• Local professional and business services employment rose to 162.4 thousand in August 2026, up 4.7742% year over year, and Dallas Fed data showed the sector growing at an 8.9% annualized rate from May to August.[5][6]: This is the clearest local pocket of support for executive support, coordinator, and office-operations roles tied to business-service employers.
• San Antonio education and health services payrolls fell at a 6.1% annualized rate from May to August 2026.[6]: If you were counting on healthcare or education office openings to be the safest path, expect more selectivity than that story suggests.
• National payroll growth slowed to +0.3% year over year in September 2026, while national unemployment was 4.2%.[35][34]: The economy is still adding jobs, but slowly enough that employers can keep admin requisitions open longer and screen harder.
• Inflation and average hourly earnings were both running at about +3.0% year over year in late summer 2026.[36][37]: Routine office-support pay is not getting much real buying-power help unless you move into higher-value support work.

What This Means for You

Entry-Level Candidates

Difficulty: Moderate to high.

Best target: On-site receptionist, front desk, general office clerk, and customer-facing admin roles in retail and hospitality, where entry-level roles dominate the local mix.[23][8][22]

Biggest mistake: Holding out for remote-only work or applying with a generic resume that never mentions data entry, customer service, Word, or Excel.[8][7]

Next step: Build two resume versions in the next two weeks: one for front-desk/customer-facing work and one for back-office/data-entry work. Put software, scheduling, cash handling, and accuracy metrics near the top.

Mid-Career Candidates

Difficulty: Moderate, but selective.

Best target: Executive assistant, office manager, admin coordinator, and team-support roles tied to professional and business services, where local growth signals are strongest.[5][6]

Biggest mistake: Leading with tenure alone instead of showing process ownership, executive calendar control, reporting, vendor coordination, and tool fluency.

Next step: Add one visible differentiator within 30 days: MOS-aligned Excel or Outlook prep, documented workflow-tool experience, or a short portfolio of AI-assisted documentation and meeting-support examples.[9][19]

Career Switchers

Difficulty: Moderate.

Best target: Customer-facing admin roles that reward service habits and data-entry accuracy, since customer service and data entry are among the most-requested local skills.[7]

Biggest mistake: Trying to leap straight into executive assistant jobs without proving calendar, document, and stakeholder-management depth.

Next step: Translate retail, hospitality, military-support, call-center, or branch experience into admin language: appointment volume, error reduction, document handling, CRM use, and handoff accuracy.

Salary Reality

moderate pay broad access

Government wage data shows a broad middle rather than a big upside story. For the office and administrative support group, San Antonio's 2025 mean pay was $47,400 and the median was $45,100, with the 25th percentile at $36,580 and the 75th at $54,150.[24][25][26][27] Sub-roles spread widely: receptionists averaged $37,740, general office clerks $41,590, administrative assistants $44,450, and executive assistants $75,000.[1] Current posted local ranges are directionally similar, centering on about $40k to $60k, or about $16 to $18 / hour for hourly roles.[28][29]

This is a moderate-pay market with lots of roles clustered in the middle. You can break in without an advanced degree, but routine office work alone is not likely to produce fast income growth.

The tradeoff is access versus upside: many roles are customer-facing and on-site, while the better-paying tracks sit in narrower, more experienced lanes. In the local sample, about 80% of openings were entry-level, about 15% were mid-level, and less than 5% each were senior or lead+.[22]

Best-paying path: The clearest higher-pay lane is executive support. Executive assistants averaged $75,000 locally, versus $44,450 for administrative assistants and $37,740 for receptionists.[1]

Caution: Do not overread top-end figures. The $67,350 90th percentile for the occupational group and the $75,000 executive-assistant mean reflect a narrower slice of the market, and the local BLS wage release is based on May 2025, not this month's openings.[30][1]

Where the Opportunities Are Concentrated

Real opportunity is not spread evenly across every office setting. In the local posting sample, retail accounts for about 35% of administrative and office support postings, healthcare about 20%, hospitality about 15%, hospitals and health care about 10%, and insurance about 5%.[23] That mix says a large share of openings are operational and customer-facing—front desk, service-desk, branch, store, and intake work—rather than classic executive-assistant jobs. The strongest office-side growth signal is professional and business services. San Antonio had 162.4 thousand professional and business services jobs in August 2026, up 4.7742% year over year, and Dallas Fed data showed that sector growing at an 8.9% annualized pace from May to August.[5][6] By contrast, local education and health services payrolls fell at a 6.1% annualized rate over the same period, so healthcare and education office work may be less forgiving right now unless you bring directly relevant experience.[6] Employer concentration is low, with more than 300 postings spread across more than 175 companies and a fragmented hiring base.[15][17] That lowers single-employer risk, but it also means job seekers need a wide application strategy instead of waiting on one marquee employer.

• Customer-facing retail and hospitality admin (high): This is the largest visible local cluster, with retail at about 35% and hospitality at about 15% of sampled postings.[23]
• Professional and business services support (high): This is the strongest growth-backed lane for higher-value office support, supported by 4.7742% year-over-year metro employment growth and 8.9% annualized recent payroll growth in the sector.[5][6]
• Healthcare and education office roles (limited): These roles are still present locally, but recent payroll declines make them a more selective lane right now; medical records and billing/coding jobs belong in a separate healthcare-support-admin track.[6]

Where to focus: Prioritize on-site business-services and customer-facing support roles first, and treat healthcare office openings as a secondary lane unless you already know that environment.

Skills and Credentials Worth Pursuing

• Microsoft Excel (differentiator): Excel appears in about 10% of local postings, and employers increasingly expect advanced spreadsheet work such as pivot tables and VLOOKUP in 2026.[7][9]
• Microsoft Office Specialist (MOS) (differentiator): Word and Microsoft Office each appear in about 10% of local postings, MOS is recommended as a high-leverage credential for administrative assistants, and UTSA offers local prep tied to MOS Expert.[7][9][19]
• Data entry accuracy (table stakes): Data entry shows up in about 15% of local postings, making it one of the clearest baseline skills for office support work in San Antonio.[7]
• Customer service and front-desk communication (table stakes): Customer service appears in about 15% of local postings, and the biggest local industry buckets are retail, healthcare, and hospitality, which all reward calm, high-volume people handling.[7][23]
• AI-assisted admin workflows (premium): Administrative support is one of the most AI-affected job groups, common tools now automate scheduling, email drafting, document creation, and note-taking, and workers with AI and data experience can earn up to 25% more.[20][10]
• Project and workflow tools (differentiator): Tools such as Asana, Monday.com, Notion, ClickUp, and Trello are an emerging hard-skill layer for admin roles as employers shift toward specialized support positions.[9][11]

Adjacent Roles to Consider

• Patient access representative (bridge): It uses the same intake, scheduling, customer-service, and data-entry base, but sits in a healthcare-support-admin track rather than general office support.
• Accounts payable specialist (pivot): It builds on office accuracy, Excel use, document handling, and deadline discipline, but moves you into finance-accounting work.
• HR coordinator (pivot): It uses scheduling, document control, onboarding support, and confidential communications, but belongs in HR and recruiting operations.
• Logistics coordinator (both): It fits candidates who already have customer service, inventory, retail-operations, or dispatch-adjacent experience.

30 / 60 / 90-Day Plan

First 30 Days

• Split your search into two lanes: customer-facing admin and business-support admin. Use different resumes for each.
• Rewrite your top bullet points around the local skill screen: data entry, customer service, Microsoft Word, Microsoft Office, and Excel.[7]
• Set alerts for on-site and hybrid roles first, not remote-only roles, because about 90% of sampled openings are on-site and about 5% are hybrid.[8]
• Apply quickly to fresh openings; the typical active local posting has been open around 24 days, so waiting a week meaningfully hurts your odds.[18]

Days 31-60

• Finish an Excel refresh focused on pivot tables, lookup functions, and clean spreadsheet reporting, then add those terms to your resume and LinkedIn headline.[9]
• Start MOS prep or a local office-manager style training path that includes MOS-aligned coursework.[19]
• Create two short work samples: a polished meeting brief and a process-improvement checklist built with an AI assistant plus your own edits, so you can show judgment rather than just tool use.[20][10]
• Broaden your employer list beyond marquee brands; the local market is fragmented across more than 175 companies, so volume and consistency matter more than one dream employer.[15][17]

Days 61-90

• If interview volume is weak, pivot toward adjacent tracks like patient access, AP, HR coordination, or logistics coordination instead of repeating the same general admin applications.
• Push for a specialized identity on your resume: executive support, office operations, intake coordination, document control, or workflow support. Employers are moving toward specialists over generalists.[11]
• If you already supervise people informally, add a basic supervisory credential or program so you can compete for office-manager and lead-support roles.[21]
• Review every rejection and tighten for fit: software named, industry context named, and whether the role is truly on-site-ready for you.

Methodology and Confidence

This September 2026 report was generated on October 10, 2026. Latest direct national data: September 2026. Latest direct San Antonio-New Braunfels, TX data: September 2026.

Confidence: Overall confidence: High. This report is anchored in recent local government labor data and supported by current wage, sector, and posting-composition signals.

Limitations

• Most local occupation pay figures come from the BLS May 2025 wage release, so they are useful for pay structure but not a live read on September 2026 offer levels.[1]
• Recent San Antonio unemployment and employment changes are based on August 2026 government releases that can still be revised, so small month-to-month and year-over-year moves should be read as directional rather than final.[2][12][13][14]
• Statewide administrative-and-office trend data was used as a proxy for metro hiring direction because a current San Antonio-specific occupation trend series is not published at the same frequency.[4][3]
• Representative titles only approximate a broad family of work, and pay varies sharply inside that family—from $37,740 for receptionists to $75,000 for executive assistants in the latest local BLS wage release.[1]
• The Callings.ai job database is a partial, deduplicated sample of online postings, so it is better for showing leading employer names, work arrangements, and skill patterns than for exact market totals or precise employer share.[15][16][17][8][7]

References

1. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Occupational Employment and Wages in San Antonio-New Braunfels — May 2025 : U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics · 2026-08 · bls.gov
2. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Bureau of Labor Statistics Data · 2026-08 · data.bls.gov
3. Reveliolabs. Job Openings — Revelio Public Labor Statistics (RPLS) · 2026-09 · reveliolabs.com
4. Reveliolabs. Employment — Revelio Public Labor Statistics (RPLS) · 2026-09 · reveliolabs.com
5. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Bureau of Labor Statistics Data · 2026-08 · data.bls.gov
6. Dallasfed. San Antonio Economic Indicators, August 2026 · 2026-09 · dallasfed.org
7. Callings.ai. Callings.ai job-market aggregation · 2026-09 · callings.ai
8. Callings.ai. Callings.ai job-market aggregation · 2026-09 · callings.ai
9. Frontlinesourcegroup. Which Skills Do Administrative Professionals Need to Succeed in 2026? · 2026-09 · frontlinesourcegroup.com
10. Robert Half. Why 2026 is a great year to be an administrative assistant · 2025-10 · roberthalf.com
11. Dpistaffing. From Generalist to Specialist: 2026 Administrative Hiring - DPI Staffing · 2026-09 · dpistaffing.com
12. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Bureau of Labor Statistics Data · 2026-08 · data.bls.gov
13. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Bureau of Labor Statistics Data · 2026-08 · data.bls.gov
14. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Bureau of Labor Statistics Data · 2026-08 · data.bls.gov
15. Callings.ai. Callings.ai job-market aggregation · 2026-09 · callings.ai
16. Callings.ai. Callings.ai job-market aggregation · 2026-09 · callings.ai
17. Callings.ai. Callings.ai job-market aggregation · 2026-09 · callings.ai
18. Callings.ai. Callings.ai job-market aggregation · 2026-09 · callings.ai
19. Careertraining. Online Office Manager from The University of Texas at San Antonio · 2026-09 · careertraining.pace.utsa.edu
20. Replacedbai. Will AI Replace Administrative Assistants? 2026 Risk Analysis · 2026-09 · replacedbai.com
21. Saafdn. Supervisory and Management Certificate Program · 2026-09 · saafdn.org
22. Callings.ai. Callings.ai job-market aggregation · 2026-09 · callings.ai
23. Callings.ai. Callings.ai job-market aggregation · 2026-09 · callings.ai
24. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Bureau of Labor Statistics Data · data.bls.gov
25. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Bureau of Labor Statistics Data · data.bls.gov
26. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Bureau of Labor Statistics Data · data.bls.gov
27. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Bureau of Labor Statistics Data · data.bls.gov
28. Callings.ai. Callings.ai job-market aggregation · 2026-09 · callings.ai
29. Callings.ai. Callings.ai job-market aggregation · 2026-09 · callings.ai
30. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Bureau of Labor Statistics Data · data.bls.gov
31. Reveliolabs. Mass-layoff Notices — Revelio Public Labor Statistics (RPLS) · 2026-09 · reveliolabs.com
32. Freightwaves. Freight Distress Report: Logistics, manufacturing cuts put 1,850 jobs on chopping block · 2026-09 · freightwaves.com
33. Mysanantonio. Client Challenge · 2026-09 · mysanantonio.com
34. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Bureau of Labor Statistics Data · 2026-09 · data.bls.gov
35. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Bureau of Labor Statistics Data · 2026-09 · data.bls.gov
36. Federal Reserve Economic Data. Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers: All Items in U.S. City Average · 2026-08 · fred.stlouisfed.org
37. Federal Reserve Economic Data. Average Hourly Earnings of All Employees, Total Private · 2026-09 · fred.stlouisfed.org

Live Openings in This Market

This report is published monthly; its companion page tracks the active Administrative & Office Support openings in San Antonio-New Braunfels, TX from the live Callings.ai job index. Browse current Administrative & Office Support openings in San Antonio-New Braunfels, TX.