Labor Market Pulse · Finance · September 2026
Finance Labor Market Report: Florence, SC MSA — September 2026
Florence Finance pay climbs for some roles, shrinks for others.
Florence MSA average weekly wages rose 15.3% year-over-year even as employment fell 400 jobs, while local Controller pay rose to $105,670 and Tax Specialist pay fell to $40,067 against a rising $65,842 national median.
Free archive edition. Published by WageScape as sent to subscribers; data as of September 2026.
Key indicators
- Florence MSA unemployment rate: 4.8% — June 2026, down 0.2 pts YoY; Florence County at 4.6% in July
- Florence average weekly wage: $903.56 — Up 15.3% YoY despite 400-job employment decline
- National financial activities job losses: -129,000 — Since May 2025; -7,000 in September alone
- F&A Talent Shortage Index: 77% — Up from 2025 Talent Surplus of 108%
Key takeaways
Metro wage growth is a composition story, not a raise story.
Average weekly wages in Florence rose 15.3% year-over-year while total employment fell, meaning the gain likely reflects a shift toward higher-paid roles in a smaller workforce rather than broad pay increases. Treat this figure with caution when modeling salary budget increases for existing staff.
Controller pay is pulling away from the rest of the Finance ladder.
Metro Controller advertised pay is up significantly to $105,670, closing toward the national median of $113,754, while FP&A Manager and Financial Analyst roles in the same metro are moving down moderately. Current conditions suggest employers are concentrating scarce compensation budget at the senior accounting layer rather than spreading it across Finance functions.
Tax Specialist pay is diverging sharply from national demand.
Metro advertised pay for Tax Specialist fell significantly to $40,067 against a national median of $65,842 that is rising significantly — a 64% gap that did not exist a year ago. This may signal either a local talent surplus or employers under-pricing a role that is tightening nationally, worth validating before the next req posts.
National F&A hiring intent is colliding with a shrinking local base.
Nearly three-quarters of F&A leaders nationally plan to add permanent headcount in H2 2026, against a national Talent Shortage Index of 77%, but Florence's employment base contracted 400 jobs year-over-year. Expansion plans built on national hiring sentiment may need local calibration given a measurably tighter candidate pool.
Median advertised pay by role — Florence, SC MSA
| Role | 25th percentile | Median advertised pay | 75th percentile | Metro trend | National median |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Controller | $90,737 | $105,670 | $114,287 | Significant increase | $113,754 |
| Senior Accountant | $69,334 | $74,674 | $74,674 | Stable | $87,731 |
| Financial Analyst | $59,395 | $67,657 | $70,623 | Moderate decline | $94,782 |
| Billing Specialist | $33,169 | $40,240 | $50,371 | Significant increase | $49,512 |
| Tax Specialist | $38,978 | $40,067 | $42,291 | Significant decline | $65,842 |
| Credit Analyst * | $46,863 | $66,839 | $71,798 | Moderate increase | $71,758 |
| FP&A Manager * | $97,535 | $117,686 | $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
Florence MSA unemployment held near 4.8% through June with employment contracting 400 jobs year-over-year to 96,200, even as average weekly wages jumped 15.3% year-over-year to $903.56 — a divergence suggesting wage gains are concentrated in a shrinking, higher-paid labor base rather than broad-based growth. Statewide, Financial Activities payrolls grew only 200 jobs month-over-month in June, consistent with a national pattern where finance and insurance shed 129,000 jobs since May 2025, even as F&A leaders nationally report an accelerating talent shortage.
What it means
Local wage data appears to reflect compositional shift — fewer, better-paid roles — rather than across-the-board pay pressure, which complicates budget planning if Finance leaders assume uniform merit increase needs across the function. National F&A hiring intent (74% planning headcount increases) sits uneasily against sector job losses and metro employment contraction, suggesting the real constraint is qualified-candidate scarcity rather than open requisitions, particularly for accounting and controllership talent. Consider reviewing headcount plans role-by-role against this scarcity signal rather than applying a flat labor-cost inflation assumption across the Finance organization.
Looking ahead
Expected: September metro unemployment data releases with a lag; watch whether the June-July tightening trend (4.8% to 4.6%) continued or reversed, as it will shape Q4 headcount cost assumptions.
Emerging pressure point: Financial Activities payrolls statewide grew just 200 jobs in June against a national backdrop of 129,000 finance-sector job losses since May 2025 — watch whether Florence-area insurance and financial services employers follow the national contraction or hold steady.
Worth watching: Koppers' 66-worker WARN notice (effective April 2026) and DP World's 205-worker Spartanburg notice show manufacturing layoff activity persisting in the broader region; monitor whether displaced talent with transferable finance/operations skills enters the Florence candidate pool.
Potential inflection point: National average hourly earnings growth decelerated to 3.0% year-over-year in September, below consensus — if this persists, it eases the case for aggressive merit budget increases even where local role-specific pay (like Controller) continues climbing.
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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