Labor Market Pulse · Finance · August 2026
Finance Labor Market Report: Green Bay, WI MSA — August 2026
Green Bay Controller pay surges while analyst roles soften.
Metro Controller advertised pay climbed to a median $101,603 even as Financial Analyst pay fell to $73,416, a split that suggests Green Bay employers are concentrating scarce compensation budget at the senior end of finance while a 3.20% metro unemployment rate keeps overall hiring tight.
Free archive edition. Published by WageScape as sent to subscribers; data as of August 2026.
Key indicators
- Green Bay MSA unemployment rate: 3.20% — Most recent metro reading, historically low
- Controller advertised pay (metro): $101,603 — Up significantly; national median $112,500 stable
- Financial Analyst advertised pay (metro): $73,416 — Down moderately vs. stable national $82,905
- Wisconsin statewide payrolls: 3,042,900 jobs (July 2026) — Down from 3,051,000 peak in Nov. 2024
Key takeaways
Controller pay is pulling away from the rest of the finance function.
Metro Controller advertised pay rose significantly to $101,603 while Senior Accountant and FP&A Manager pay held stable, signaling employers are concentrating scarce budget on senior financial leadership roles rather than broadening increases across the department. Budget cycle planning should treat Controller-level compensation as a distinct, faster-moving line item.
Financial Analyst and Credit Analyst pay softening locally bucks the national trend.
Metro Financial Analyst pay is down moderately to $73,416 and Credit Analyst down moderately to $59,249, even as national medians for both roles are stable or rising. This divergence may suggest Green Bay employers are finding adequate local supply for mid-level analytical roles even as senior and specialist roles tighten — worth testing before assuming national wage pressure applies uniformly.
Tax Specialist and Billing Specialist pay signal where real scarcity lives.
Both roles posted significant advertised pay increases locally ($65,274 and $47,840 respectively), tracking national gains in the same roles and consistent with 90% of finance leaders nationally reporting difficulty filling skilled positions. These are the roles most likely to blow through planned salary ranges during the next hiring cycle.
Wisconsin's job losses since January 2025 complicate headcount cost forecasting.
State employment has declined from a November 2024 peak of 3,051,000 jobs even as August's seasonally adjusted unemployment rate improved to 3.2%, a combination that suggests some of the state's apparent tightness reflects labor force exits rather than genuine demand strength. Controllers building multi-year headcount cost models should stress-test against both a continued-tightness and a labor-force-recovery scenario.
Median advertised pay by role — Green Bay, WI MSA
| Role | 25th percentile | Median advertised pay | 75th percentile | Metro trend | National median |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Controller | $87,500 | $101,603 | $110,654 | Significant increase | $112,500 |
| Senior Accountant | $69,599 | $76,381 | $76,521 | Stable | $87,731 |
| Financial Analyst | $63,708 | $73,416 | $82,175 | Moderate decline | $82,905 |
| Billing Specialist | $41,600 | $47,840 | $51,720 | Significant increase | $49,700 |
| Tax Specialist | $42,103 | $65,274 | $65,275 | Significant increase | $66,725 |
| Credit Analyst | $48,498 | $59,249 | $64,218 | Moderate decline | $72,000 |
| FP&A Manager * | $96,608 | $113,865 | $123,678 | Stable | $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
Green Bay's metro unemployment sits at historically tight levels — 3.20% as of the most recent MSA reading — with roughly 18,500 job postings live in Brown County against a base of 7,700 employers, underscoring that labor supply, not demand, remains the binding constraint on hiring plans. State-level context reinforces the pressure: Wisconsin unemployment fell to 3.2% in August even as the state has quietly shed jobs since January 2025, a divergence that suggests headline tightness may partly reflect workforce exits rather than pure hiring strength.
What it means
Tight metro labor supply is colliding with Finance-specific hiring urgency — nationally, 74% of F&A leaders plan permanent headcount increases while 61% report skilled candidates harder to find than a year ago, a dynamic Green Bay's thin candidate pool will likely amplify. With Controller pay up significantly locally ($101,603 median) while Financial Analyst and Credit Analyst advertised pay have moved down, budget cycles may need role-by-role rather than department-wide compensation assumptions. Consider reviewing headcount cost forecasts at the individual-role level rather than applying a blanket wage-inflation assumption across the finance function.
Looking ahead
Worth watching: Brown County's 18,500+ open postings against thin unemployment suggests requisition aging will likely lengthen for finance and accounting roles over the next quarter. Track time-to-fill for Controller and Tax Specialist openings specifically, since these show the sharpest local pay acceleration.
Emerging pressure point: National F&A hiring managers report 69% offering salaries above planned range and 82% paying AI-skill premiums for technical accounting and FP&A roles. Watch whether Green Bay employers begin advertising AI or automation skill premiums for close-cycle and forecasting roles, which would signal the trend has reached this metro.
Potential inflection point: Wisconsin's divergence between falling statewide payrolls and falling unemployment warrants a second data point before drawing conclusions. A stabilization or reversal in Brown County job postings over the next 30-60 days would help clarify whether local finance hiring is entering a genuine slowdown or simply a supply-constrained plateau.
Early indicator: The April 2026 Green Bay Converting layoff (32 workers) was modest, but any additional WARN filings in manufacturing or converting-adjacent sectors would be worth monitoring given Wisconsin's broader 11,300-job decline in trade over the past year. A cluster of filings could ease pressure on adjacent finance support roles tied to those industries.
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.