Labor Market Pulse · Finance · August 2026
Finance Labor Market Report: Cedar Rapids, IA MSA — August 2026
Cedar Rapids finance talent tightens as Linn County jobs shrink.
Linn County employment fell 1.6% year-over-year even as local FP&A Manager pay hit $132,518, outpacing the $127,341 national median, signaling a market bidding up scarce analytical talent.
Free archive edition. Published by WageScape as sent to subscribers; data as of August 2026.
Key indicators
- Linn County employment change: -1.6% — Largest decline among Iowa's four largest counties
- Iowa unemployment rate: 3.2% — Steady 4th month, down from 3.5% a year ago
- FP&A Manager advertised pay, metro: $132,518 — vs $127,341 national median
- Cedar Rapids MSA unemployment (latest available): 3.9% — December 2025 figure; August data due Sept 22
Key takeaways
FP&A and analyst roles are pricing above national norms locally.
FP&A Manager advertised pay sits at $132,518 in Cedar Rapids versus $127,341 nationally, and Financial Analyst pay at $84,966 versus $82,905 nationally. This inversion suggests employers are competing hardest for forecasting and planning talent precisely where Linn County's workforce contraction bites deepest.
Retirement-driven attrition is quietly reshaping the local talent pipeline.
Iowa's employed population fell 7,500 year-over-year largely due to retirements, and Linn County posted the steepest county-level employment decline in the state. Finance functions relying on experienced senior accountants or controllers locally may be recruiting from a permanently smaller pool, not a cyclical dip.
Senior Accountant pay is flat while everything around it moves.
Senior Accountant advertised pay held stable at $79,174 locally against a national median of $87,731, a gap that has persisted while Financial Analyst and Tax Specialist pay both moved up significantly. Flat pay in a tightening market may indicate this role is being backfilled through internal promotion rather than external hiring, worth confirming before assuming market competitiveness.
Lower UI tax rates offer modest payroll relief heading into 2027.
Iowa's UI Trust Fund reached $2.1 billion, qualifying employers for the lowest possible tax rates in 2027. That relief is small against the wage pressure building in analyst and FP&A roles, but it is a rare cost tailwind worth factoring into total labor cost projections.
Median advertised pay by role — Cedar Rapids, IA MSA
| Role | 25th percentile | Median advertised pay | 75th percentile | Metro trend | National median |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Controller | $73,280 | $111,589 | $115,444 | Significant increase | $112,500 |
| Senior Accountant | $71,004 | $79,174 | $82,997 | Stable | $87,731 |
| Financial Analyst | $68,037 | $84,966 | $88,451 | Significant increase | $82,905 |
| Billing Specialist | $40,258 | $47,161 | $53,040 | Significant increase | $49,700 |
| Tax Specialist | $43,441 | $65,620 | $65,620 | Significant increase | $66,725 |
| Credit Analyst * | $55,244 | $63,135 | $63,526 | Moderate increase | $72,000 |
| FP&A Manager * | $104,638 | $132,518 | $136,259 | Significant increase | $127,341 |
* 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
Linn County's labor market shows a sharper divergence than the state trend suggests: employment fell 1.6% year-over-year even as Iowa's unemployment rate held at 3.2% for a fourth straight month, driven by retirement-linked labor force exits and continued softness in trade and transportation. Wage growth in Linn County, at 3.5% year-over-year in Q3 2025, has outpaced the statewide average in prior periods but now trails Scott and Johnson counties, pointing to a metro economy tightening on supply even as broader demand growth moderates.
What it means
Finance leaders building FY2027 headcount budgets face a Cedar Rapids labor pool that is shrinking through attrition rather than layoffs, which limits the near-term candidate supply for close-cycle and FP&A roles even as national F&A hiring managers report 61% greater difficulty filling skilled positions than a year ago. Advertised pay for Financial Analyst ($84,966) and FP&A Manager ($132,518) roles locally now exceeds national medians, a signal that Cedar Rapids employers are bidding up scarce forecasting and analytical talent rather than seeing broad-based inflation across finance roles. Current conditions suggest reviewing which finance roles in the org chart depend on local supply versus remote-eligible talent pools before locking in FY2027 comp ranges.
Looking ahead
Expected: Iowa Workforce Development posts Cedar Rapids MSA-specific August 2026 unemployment and payroll figures on September 22. Finance leaders should watch whether the metro's December 2025 rate of 3.9% has moved meaningfully, given Linn County's divergent employment trend.
Emerging pressure point: Manufacturing added 1,300 jobs statewide in August while transportation and trade shed 5,200 over the year, a bifurcation that could show up in Cedar Rapids given its manufacturing base. Watch whether local finance and accounting hiring tied to manufacturing operations tracks that gain.
Worth watching: National F&A hiring data shows 82% of leaders paying AI-skill premiums, with technical accounting and SEC roles commanding 6-15% premiums. Cedar Rapids employers competing for scarce analyst and FP&A talent may begin importing this premium structure locally within the next two quarters.
Potential inflection point: Linn County's 1.6% year-over-year employment decline is the largest among Iowa's major counties; a second consecutive quarter of contraction would signal a structural rather than transitional labor supply constraint for local finance hiring.
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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