Labor Market Pulse · Finance · October 2026
Finance Labor Market Report: Burlington-South Burlington, VT MSA — October 2026
Burlington finance pay splits: FP&A surges, transactional roles retreat.
FP&A Manager advertised pay climbed to $136,753 in the Burlington metro even as Tax Specialist and Credit Analyst pay fell sharply, against a backdrop of 2.2% county unemployment and a 16.8% statewide finance-sector pay gap to the national average.
Free archive edition. Published by WageScape as sent to subscribers; data as of October 2026.
Key indicators
- Chittenden County unemployment: 2.2% — vs 4.1% national, 2.6% Vermont statewide
- FP&A Manager advertised pay: $136,753 — vs $130,000 national median, up significantly
- Vermont finance sector wage gap: -16.8% — $102,897 VT avg vs $123,705 national avg
- Vermont WARN-affected workers: 677 in 2026 — up 88% vs 2025
Key takeaways
FP&A compensation is pulling away from the rest of finance.
FP&A Manager advertised pay rose to $136,753 locally, outpacing even the $130,000 national figure, while Senior Accountant, Credit Analyst and Tax Specialist pay all fell. Budget planning should treat strategic finance roles and transactional finance roles as distinct markets, each with its own finance pay curve.
Vermont's finance sector is shrinking while the broader labor market tightens.
Commercial banking employment has declined 1.8% annually since 2021 and credit intermediation jobs are projected to fall further, even as Chittenden County unemployment holds at 2.2%. Headcount reductions in finance appear to reflect sector-specific contraction, which complicates assumptions about backfill difficulty.
Local finance pay sits well below the national scale.
Vermont finance and insurance wages average $102,897, 16.8% below the national average of $123,705, a gap that predates this month's softening in advertised pay for mid-level roles. Current conditions suggest this gap may widen further for transactional roles unless employers actively defend pay position against national remote-work competition.
CFO turnover risk compounds a thin regional bench.
National CFO turnover is projected at 18.3% for 2026, the highest since the pandemic, with 37.5% of CFO hires now coming from outside the organization. Combined with Vermont's workforce contraction, succession planning for controller and FP&A leadership deserves earlier attention than typical budget cycles allow.
Median advertised pay by role — Burlington-South Burlington, VT MSA
| Role | 25th percentile | Median advertised pay | 75th percentile | Metro trend | National median |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Controller | $91,750 | $119,661 | $130,000 | Stable | $115,420 |
| Senior Accountant | $76,807 | $85,020 | $94,125 | Significant decline | $87,731 |
| Financial Analyst | $70,322 | $83,357 | $93,044 | Stable | $94,646 |
| Billing Specialist | $46,659 | $51,737 | $63,314 | Moderate decline | $49,000 |
| Tax Specialist | $38,480 | $55,984 | $59,713 | Significant decline | $69,556 |
| Credit Analyst * | $48,385 | $62,500 | $66,875 | Significant decline | $71,397 |
| FP&A Manager * | $93,602 | $136,753 | $136,754 | Significant increase | $130,000 |
* 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
Chittenden County's unemployment rate sits at 2.2%, the tightest labor market in Vermont and well below the 4.1% national rate, even as the state's finance and insurance sector contracts — Vermont finance employment grew just 0.4% in 2026 while commercial banking headcount declined 1.8% annually since 2021. Vermont's workforce shrank by nearly 10,000 people over the past year, and that demographic drain is colliding with sector-specific contraction to produce a labor market that is simultaneously tight on talent and soft on finance-sector job creation.
What it means
Metro finance compensation data shows broad-based softening — Senior Accountant, Tax Specialist, Credit Analyst and Billing Specialist advertised pay all declined, some significantly, while FP&A Manager pay rose sharply to $136,753, a premium over the $130,000 national figure. That divergence appears consistent with national CFO-level turnover data (18.3% projected for 2026) and suggests Burlington employers are concentrating scarce compensation dollars on strategic finance leadership roles while allowing transactional and compliance-adjacent roles to drift with a thinner, lower-cost local talent pool. Organizations should evaluate whether headcount budgets for FP&A and controllership functions reflect this local premium, while reviewing whether declining advertised pay for roles like Tax Specialist and Credit Analyst reflects reduced demand or weaker employer competitiveness in a shrinking labor force.
Looking ahead
Early indicator: Vermont Information Processing's 66-person layoff tied to AI adoption, filed October 20, may signal more automation-driven reductions in finance-adjacent operations roles across the metro. Watch whether displaced workers with financial systems experience surface in the local candidate pool.
Emerging pressure point: UVM Health Network's 179-person WARN filing in September adds to a year where Vermont WARN-affected workers are up 88% over 2025. Finance leaders in healthcare-adjacent organizations should monitor whether this signals broader cost-cutting that could affect shared finance and accounting functions.
Worth watching: Vermont's finance sector wage gap to the national average (16.8%) combined with declining advertised pay for Tax Specialist and Credit Analyst roles may accelerate remote-hire competition from higher-paying metros. Track whether open requisitions in these roles take longer to fill over the next two cycles.
Potential inflection point: Employment Cost Index growth of 3.4% nationally, with inflation-adjusted compensation costs actually declining 0.4%, suggests 2027 budget cycles may face less wage-driven cost pressure than 2026. Finance leaders building headcount cost models should watch whether this moderation reaches Vermont's tighter, demographically constrained labor pool.
Sources
- Vermont Department of Labor — Chittenden County unemployment at 2.2%, tightest in Vermont
- Vermont Department of Labor — Vermont finance and insurance employment growth of 0.4% in 2026
- Crist|Kolder — CFO turnover projected at 18.3% in 2026, highest since pandemic
- Vermont Department of Labor — Vermont finance sector wages average $102,897, 16.8% below national
- Vermont Department of Labor WARN Notice — Vermont Information Processing layoff of 66 employees tied to AI adoption
- Bureau of Labor Statistics — Employment Cost Index up 3.4% with inflation-adjusted decline of 0.4%
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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