Labor Market Pulse · Finance · September 2026
Finance Labor Market Report: Billings, MT MSA — September 2026
Billings finance pay climbs against a cooling national sector.
Billings advertised pay for Controller ($105,500) and Billing Specialist ($64,113) roles is rising sharply even as national financial-activities payrolls have shed 129,000 jobs since May 2025.
Free archive edition. Published by WageScape as sent to subscribers; data as of September 2026.
Key indicators
- Billings MSA unemployment: 2.9% — vs 4.1% national, 3.2% Montana (Aug 2026)
- Montana 2025 wage growth: 5.4% — Highest in nation vs 3.4% national
- National financial activities jobs lost: 129,000 — Since May 2025, concentrated in insurance
- Yellowstone County avg weekly wage: $1,285 — Up 4.2% y/y, below $1,654 national (Q1 2026)
Key takeaways
Billings finance pay is rising faster than the national trend.
Controller, Senior Accountant, Billing Specialist, Tax Specialist, and Credit Analyst advertised pay all show significant or moderate local increases, several outpacing their national counterparts. This is consistent with Montana's 5.4% statewide wage growth in 2025 — the highest in the nation — compressing the usual geographic pay discount for smaller metros.
FP&A Manager pay softening may signal a cooling leadership tier.
Metro FP&A Manager advertised pay moved down moderately to $125,784 even as most other finance roles climbed, a reversal worth tracking against national financial-activities job losses concentrated in insurance and related functions. This could reflect fewer open senior planning roles locally rather than falling demand for the skillset itself.
Billing Specialist pay gap with national rates has nearly disappeared.
Metro Billing Specialist advertised pay at $64,113 now runs well above the $49,512 national median, a reversal of the typical metro discount. Organizations benchmarking this role against national data risk underpricing it significantly in the Billings market.
National F&A hiring intentions don't match sector job losses.
74% of finance and accounting leaders plan to add permanent headcount in the second half of 2026, even as financial activities payrolls contract nationally and the 2026 Talent Shortage Index flips to 77% from last year's surplus reading. Local hiring plans built on national benchmarks should account for this credibility gap between stated intent and realized headcount.
Median advertised pay by role — Billings, MT MSA
| Role | 25th percentile | Median advertised pay | 75th percentile | Metro trend | National median |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Controller | $89,990 | $105,500 | $109,712 | Significant increase | $113,754 |
| Senior Accountant | $77,786 | $92,000 | $105,500 | Moderate increase | $87,731 |
| Financial Analyst | $74,914 | $80,680 | $82,988 | Stable | $94,782 |
| Billing Specialist | $41,459 | $64,113 | $94,984 | Significant increase | $49,512 |
| Tax Specialist | $38,009 | $62,627 | $62,627 | Significant increase | $65,842 |
| Credit Analyst | $59,361 | $69,992 | $78,144 | Significant increase | $71,758 |
| FP&A Manager * | $97,991 | $125,784 | $139,846 | Moderate decline | $128,139 |
* State-level figure shown where metro postings were too few.
WageScape's median is calibrated to correct for spurious low-value postings (reported as the 60th percentile of raw advertised pay). Download: CSV · JSON
Local market conditions
Billings MSA unemployment held at 2.9% in August against a national rate of 4.1%, reflecting a tight local labor pool even as Yellowstone County employment edged down 0.1% year over year through September 2025. Financial and professional services remains Montana's leading economic driver, but national financial-activities payrolls have now shed 129,000 jobs since May 2025, creating a split picture between local scarcity and sector-wide contraction upstream.
What it means
Local Finance headcount planning sits at the intersection of two opposing forces: a metro labor market tight enough to sustain advertised pay increases on Controller, Senior Accountant, Billing Specialist, Tax Specialist, and Credit Analyst roles, while national financial-activities employment keeps contracting and FP&A Manager advertised pay has softened. That divergence suggests Billings employers are competing hard for a shrinking pool of accounting and finance talent even as corporate finance functions nationally lean on automation and shared services to hold headcount flat. Consider reviewing which roles are being bid up locally for genuine scarcity reasons versus which reflect national compensation inflation passing through — and weight budget increases accordingly rather than applying a flat cost-of-labor adjustment across the function.
Looking ahead
Worth watching: Yellowstone County unemployment at 3.1% sits above the MSA's 2.9% reading, a gap that could widen if Sibanye-Stillwater mining layoffs west of Billings push displaced workers into adjacent labor pools, including finance-adjacent administrative roles.
Emerging pressure point: Nearly half of F&A organizations nationally expect direct labor rate increases above 4% amid scarcity; watch whether Billings employers follow through on advertised pay gains for Controller and Senior Accountant roles when Q4 budget cycles finalize.
Potential inflection point: National average hourly earnings growth decelerated to 3.0% year-over-year in September, below forecast — if this moderation reaches Montana, it could ease the compensation pressure currently outpacing national trends across most finance roles in Billings.
Early indicator: Montana's labor force grew just 0.1% in 2025 while employment fell 0.3%, a no-hire, no-fire pattern that may limit the candidate pool available for Billings finance openings even as advertised pay rises to attract scarce talent.
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. WageScape observes 98% of U.S. job openings daily.
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