Labor Market Pulse · Finance · September 2026
Finance Labor Market Report: Brunswick, GA MSA — September 2026
Brunswick Finance pay climbs as talent pool keeps shrinking.
Glynn County unemployment sits at just 2.70% while metro Controller pay rises to a $100,743 median, even as national financial activities employment contracts by 129,000 jobs since May 2025.
Free archive edition. Published by WageScape as sent to subscribers; data as of September 2026.
Key indicators
- Glynn County unemployment: 2.70% — vs 3.2% Georgia, 4.1% national
- Metro Financial Activities wage growth: +19.7% — Year-over-year, Q1 2026, outpacing all other metro sectors
- National financial activities job losses: -129,000 — Since May 2025, led by insurance carriers (-90,000)
- Georgia finance/statistics vacancy growth: +4.9% — Year-over-year through June 2026
Key takeaways
Controller pay is rising fast while national Finance hiring contracts.
Metro Controller advertised pay moved up significantly to $100,743 even as national financial activities employment fell by 129,000 since May 2025. Local scarcity, not national sector weakness, appears to be setting Brunswick's price for senior finance talent — budget accordingly rather than anchoring to national trend data.
Tax Specialist pay is diverging sharply from the national market.
Metro Tax Specialist advertised pay fell significantly to $40,222 while the national median rose to $65,842 — a near-$26,000 gap. This may reflect thinner local demand or a shallow local candidate pool depressing postings; either way, out-of-market recruiting may be the only path to competitive hires for this role.
Sub-3% unemployment is the real constraint on Finance headcount plans.
Glynn County's 2.70% unemployment rate, well below the 4.1% national and 3.2% Georgia figures, signals a labor pool with very little slack. Controllers planning FY2027 headcount additions should expect longer time-to-fill and premium pay for any mid-to-senior finance hire sourced locally.
Financial Activities wage growth outpaces every other local sector.
Weekly wages in Financial Activities rose 19.7% year-over-year in the metro, far outstripping Professional and Business Services (+5.9%) and Education/Health Services (+2.8%). Consider this a signal that finance-adjacent roles are being repriced locally faster than peer functions — a pattern compensation planning should treat as structural, not seasonal.
Median advertised pay by role — Brunswick, GA MSA
| Role | 25th percentile | Median advertised pay | 75th percentile | Metro trend | National median |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Controller | $62,988 | $100,743 | $103,944 | Significant increase | $113,754 |
| Senior Accountant * | $74,905 | $85,000 | $87,717 | Stable | $87,731 |
| Financial Analyst | $51,050 | $71,289 | $72,827 | Stable | $94,782 |
| Billing Specialist * | $35,880 | $45,128 | $52,947 | Stable | $49,512 |
| Tax Specialist | $34,566 | $40,222 | $43,575 | Significant decline | $65,842 |
| Credit Analyst * | $54,020 | $70,632 | $77,388 | Moderate increase | $71,758 |
| FP&A Manager * | $101,279 | $116,719 | $130,000 | 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
Glynn County's unemployment rate sits at a historically tight 2.70% as of July 2026, with Brunswick MSA nonfarm employment up 3.8% year-over-year to 48,097 jobs, driven largely by Professional and Business Services expansion (+8.7%) and continued port and tourism-adjacent activity.That tightness collides with a national Finance sector pulling back — financial activities shed 7,000 jobs in September and 129,000 since May 2025 — creating a local market where Finance talent is scarce even as the broader industry contracts elsewhere.
What it means
Local scarcity and national Finance sector contraction are pulling in opposite directions, meaning Brunswick-area Controllers and FP&A leaders should not assume national headcount caution will ease local hiring friction — advertised Controller pay here is up significantly to a $100,743 metro median even as national financial activities employment shrinks. Georgia's finance and statistics vacancies grew 4.9% year-over-year, reinforcing that mid-to-senior finance roles remain genuinely hard to fill regardless of sector-wide headlines. Consider reviewing headcount cost assumptions built on national Finance job-loss trends against local metro-specific hiring friction before finalizing FY2027 budget cycle inputs.
Looking ahead
Potential inflection point: National average hourly earnings growth decelerated to just 0.13% in September (3.0% y/y), below forecast. Watch whether this national cooling eventually filters into Brunswick's advertised pay trends, which have so far moved independently of the national slowdown.
Worth watching: Nearly three-quarters of national F&A leaders plan to increase permanent headcount in the second half of 2026 despite sector-wide job losses elsewhere. Local Controllers should monitor whether this hiring intent translates into increased competition for the same shallow Brunswick candidate pool.
Emerging pressure point: Georgia recorded 18 WARN notices in the past 90 days affecting 2,709 workers statewide, though Brunswick-specific filings remain limited since the 2025 Radial layoff. Any uptick in local WARN activity would be a meaningful early signal given how tight the metro labor pool already is.
Expected: Georgia's finance and statistics vacancies grew 4.9% year-over-year through June, a trend likely to continue into FY2027 planning cycles. Expect continued upward pressure on advertised pay for mid-to-senior finance roles as this vacancy growth collides with 2.70% county unemployment.
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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