Labor Market Pulse · Finance · October 2026
Finance Labor Market Report: Davenport-Moline-Rock Island, IA-IL MSA — October 2026
Davenport Finance pay splits: planning roles up, controllership down.
Metro FP&A Manager pay rose to $136,259, outpacing the $130,000 national median, while Controller pay fell to $94,086 against a rising $115,420 national figure.
Free archive edition. Published by WageScape as sent to subscribers; data as of October 2026.
Key indicators
- Illinois-side metro unemployment: 5.0% — Down from 5.4% a year ago, Sept. 2026
- Illinois-side metro payroll change: -3.3% — Steepest job loss among Illinois metros
- Scott County vs Rock Island unemployment: 3.0% vs 4.0% — Aug. 2026, Iowa side outperforming Illinois side
- Illinois Financial Activities jobs: -15,800 YoY — Statewide, even as F&A postings rose 6.8%
Key takeaways
Controller pay in Davenport is falling against a rising national tide.
Metro Controller advertised pay sits at $94,086, down significantly and now 18% below the $115,420 national median. Local demand for this role appears softer than the national market, which may reflect the metro's broader payroll contraction; worth confirming before resetting internal ranges.
FP&A Manager pay signals where Finance investment is actually going.
At $136,259, metro FP&A Manager pay now exceeds the $130,000 national median and is rising faster locally. Employers appear to be bidding for forecasting and planning capability even as transactional roles soften, consistent with national reports that retention of skilled FP&A talent is now a bigger concern than filling vacancies.
Tax Specialist and Credit Analyst pay climbing points to specialized-skill scarcity.
Both roles show moderate upward movement locally ($70,720 and $72,122 respectively), tracking national gains. Narrow, compliance-adjacent finance skills appear to command a premium even in a metro with contracting overall finance headcount.
Illinois-side payroll contraction complicates 2027 budget cycle timing.
Statewide Illinois data releases November 19, with metro detail following November 25 — after many finance teams will have started 2027 planning. Budget owners modeling Davenport-area headcount costs may be working with August data for several more weeks.
Median advertised pay by role — Davenport-Moline-Rock Island, IA-IL MSA
| Role | 25th percentile | Median advertised pay | 75th percentile | Metro trend | National median |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Controller | $82,500 | $94,086 | $112,000 | Significant decline | $115,420 |
| Senior Accountant | $64,000 | $77,500 | $79,448 | Moderate increase | $87,731 |
| Financial Analyst | $71,026 | $89,154 | $99,824 | Stable | $94,646 |
| Billing Specialist | $38,480 | $43,680 | $44,720 | Stable | $49,000 |
| Tax Specialist | $42,986 | $70,720 | $81,379 | Moderate increase | $69,556 |
| Credit Analyst * | $62,400 | $72,122 | $75,780 | Moderate increase | $71,397 |
| FP&A Manager | $107,217 | $136,259 | $140,630 | 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
Davenport metro's Illinois-side unemployment held at 5.0% in September, down year-over-year but accompanied by a 3.3% nonfarm payroll decline — the steepest job loss among Illinois metros — while Scott County's Iowa side outperformed with 3.0% unemployment and 5.1% wage growth through Q1 2026. Divergence between the two sides of the river reflects uneven exposure to manufacturing and distribution-sector contraction, with Rock Island County absorbing most of the softening.
What it means
Illinois Financial Activities employment fell 15,800 jobs year-over-year statewide even as Finance & Accounting postings rose 6.8%, a pattern mirrored locally in FP&A Manager pay climbing to $136,259 (up significantly) while Controller pay dropped to $94,086 against a $115,420 national median — signaling budget owners are paying up for strategic finance capability while compressing traditional controllership spend. With CFO turnover projected at 18.3% nationally and 70% of finance leaders expanding contract talent use, headcount cost models built on stable FTE assumptions may understate both vacancy risk during close cycles and the premium now required for planning-oriented roles. Consider reviewing 2027 headcount budgets to separate FP&A and analytical capacity from transactional accounting roles, given the diverging pay trajectories within the same finance function.
Looking ahead
Expected: Illinois metro-level employment data for October releases November 25, which will show whether the Illinois-side 3.3% year-over-year payroll decline accelerated or stabilized. Finance leaders finalizing 2027 headcount budgets should treat current figures as provisional.
Emerging pressure point: Financial Activities employment fell 15,800 jobs statewide in Illinois even as Finance & Accounting postings rose 6.8%, a gap that suggests displaced general finance staff may not match the specialized skills employers are advertising for. Watch whether this mismatch shows up locally as longer time-to-fill for FP&A and tax roles.
Worth watching: Scott County's 5.1% wage growth and 3.0% unemployment continue to outpace Rock Island County, widening a cross-river compensation gap. Organizations with operations on both sides of the metro may need county-specific pay strategies instead of a single blended range.
Potential inflection point: National CFO turnover at 18.3% and a 37.5% external-hire rate raise succession risk heading into year-end close and audit season. Finance leaders should evaluate whether local bench strength and interim coverage plans are adequate given the metro's thinner finance talent pool relative to national benchmarks.
Sources
- Illinois Department of Employment Security — Illinois-side Davenport metro unemployment at 5.0%, down from 5.4% year-over-year
- Illinois Department of Employment Security — Illinois-side metro nonfarm payrolls declined 3.3% year-over-year
- Bureau of Labor Statistics / Illinois Dept of Employment Security — Illinois Financial Activities employment fell 15,800 jobs year-over-year while F&A postings rose 6.8%
- Crist|Kolder Associates — CFO turnover projected at 18.3% in 2026, highest since the pandemic
- Bureau of Labor Statistics — Scott County wage growth of 5.1% year-over-year through Q1 2026
- Illinois Department of Employment Security — Illinois metro-level October employment data releases November 25, 2026
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.
Free to read and cite with attribution to WageScape. Terms of use.