Labor Market Pulse · Finance · September 2026
Finance Labor Market Report: Boulder, CO MSA — September 2026
Boulder Finance pay climbs as sector headcount shrinks.
Boulder County wages rose 6.6% year-over-year even as Colorado financial activities shed roughly 5,300 jobs since July 2025, with Controller pay up to $101,884 while FP&A Manager pay fell to $121,700.
Free archive edition. Published by WageScape as sent to subscribers; data as of September 2026.
Key indicators
- Boulder County wage growth: 6.6% — Q1 2026 y/y, outpacing national 3.9% average
- Colorado financial activities jobs: -5,300 — Since July 2025, statewide contraction
- Boulder County unemployment: 3.4% — April 2026, vs 4.0% Colorado, 4.1% U.S.
- National F&A hiring intent: 74% — Plan to raise permanent headcount H2 2026
Key takeaways
Finance payrolls are shrinking, but not evenly.
Colorado financial activities lost roughly 4,300 jobs from July to August alone, yet Controller pay rose significantly locally to $101,884 median. Contraction appears concentrated in support and mid-management layers, not senior compliance or leadership roles.
FP&A Manager pay decline may signal a local correction, not a trend.
Metro FP&A Manager advertised pay fell to $121,700, a significant drop against a stable national median of $128,139. Treat this as a local anomaly worth confirming before adjusting budgets — Boulder's small sample size for senior FP&A postings can swing medians sharply.
Credit Analyst pay is falling locally while rising nationally.
Metro Credit Analyst pay dropped significantly to $71,401 even as the national median climbed to $71,758, reversing the usual Boulder wage premium. May reflect softening credit and lending demand locally tied to financial activities contraction.
Tax Specialist demand is the clearest growth signal in Finance.
Metro pay rose moderately to $74,426 and national pay rose significantly to $65,842, both outpacing most other Finance roles this month. Consistent with compliance and regulatory workload growing even as broader hiring cools.
Median advertised pay by role — Boulder, CO MSA
| Role | 25th percentile | Median advertised pay | 75th percentile | Metro trend | National median |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Controller | $50,079 | $101,884 | $116,248 | Significant increase | $113,754 |
| Senior Accountant | $84,856 | $87,846 | $95,430 | Stable | $87,731 |
| Financial Analyst | $75,000 | $98,000 | $104,870 | Moderate increase | $94,782 |
| Billing Specialist | $39,869 | $51,090 | $65,000 | Significant increase | $49,512 |
| Tax Specialist | $55,836 | $74,426 | $93,600 | Moderate increase | $65,842 |
| Credit Analyst | $56,652 | $71,401 | $76,752 | Significant decline | $71,758 |
| FP&A Manager | $91,043 | $121,700 | $133,650 | Significant decline | $128,139 |
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
Boulder County's financial activities sector is contracting in step with statewide losses of roughly 5,300 jobs since July 2025, even as overall county employment slipped 1.0% year-over-year through March and the unemployment rate held near 3.4% in April. Wage growth in Boulder remains unusually strong for a cooling labor market — average weekly wages rose 6.6% year-over-year in Q1 2026 — suggesting employers are paying up for scarcer finance talent even as headcount overall softens.
What it means
Divergence between shrinking financial activities payrolls and rising wages points to a market where Finance leaders face fewer open requisitions but tougher, costlier fills for the roles they do need — particularly senior accounting and FP&A talent, where national CPA shortage signals (a 2026 Talent Shortage Index of 77%, up from a 108% surplus in 2025) are compounding local scarcity. Controller advertised pay rose to a metro median of $101,884 against a backdrop of declining FP&A Manager pay, suggesting employers are concentrating compensation investment in leadership and compliance-critical roles while pulling back on mid-management layers. Consider reviewing headcount plans role-by-role rather than department-wide, since aggregate financial activities contraction masks sharply different demand curves within Finance.
Looking ahead
Worth watching: Colorado's unemployment rate (4.0%) is converging toward the national rate (4.1%) after a year of outperformance. Watch whether Boulder County unemployment, still near 3.4% in April, follows the state trend upward over Q4.
Emerging pressure point: Financial activities job losses statewide have persisted for multiple consecutive months. If Boulder-based financial and insurance employers appear in upcoming WARN filings, expect downward pressure on mid-level Finance compensation benchmarking.
Potential inflection point: National F&A hiring intentions remain strong — 74% of finance and accounting leaders plan to increase permanent headcount in H2 2026 — despite sector-wide job losses. Watch whether Boulder employers follow this national pattern or continue to lag given local contraction.
Early indicator: Colorado's minimum wage rises to $15.71 in 2027, a 3.6% increase, with Boulder's local minimum already at $16.82 and CPI-indexed. Entry-level Finance and shared-services cost structures should be modeled now for the January reset.
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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