Labor Market Pulse · Finance · August 2026
Finance Labor Market Report: Jackson, TN MSA — August 2026
Jackson's FP&A pay gap widens as state finance jobs contract.
FP&A Manager advertised pay in Jackson has fallen to $105,863 against a stable national median of $127,341, even as Tennessee's financial activities sector shed 700 jobs in August alone.
Free archive edition. Published by WageScape as sent to subscribers; data as of August 2026.
Key indicators
- Madison County unemployment: 3.9% — Down from 4.4% a year prior (March 2026)
- FP&A Manager pay gap: -16.8% — $105,863 metro vs $127,341 national, trending down
- TN financial activities jobs: -700 — August 2026 monthly change statewide
- TN labor force change: -50,000 — Year-over-year contraction through August 2026
Key takeaways
FP&A Manager pay gap with national market is widening, not closing.
Metro median sits at $105,863 against a stable national figure of $127,341 — a nearly 17% discount that's moving in the wrong direction locally. For a role increasingly tied to AI-driven forecasting premiums nationally, this gap risks losing candidates to remote or regional competitors offering scope-adjusted pay.
Tax Specialist and Credit Analyst pay are climbing fastest in the metro.
Both roles show significant upward movement locally — Tax Specialist up to $56,565 and Credit Analyst to $65,108 — suggesting employers are actively competing for compliance and risk-adjacent talent even as broader finance hiring cools. Worth benchmarking these roles more frequently than stable titles like Controller or Senior Accountant.
State-level professional services losses may be masking local tightness.
Tennessee's professional, scientific and technical services sector lost 1,500 jobs in August, a contraction that doesn't necessarily translate to more available Jackson-area finance talent given the metro's small labor market and manufacturing skew. Local hiring managers should not assume statewide softening means easier recruiting in Jackson specifically.
Controller and Senior Accountant pay stability may signal complacency risk.
Both roles show flat advertised pay locally and nationally this month, even as national F&A hiring managers report 69% making above-range offers for business-critical roles. Static local postings in a market where 90% of finance leaders nationally report fill-rate struggles could indicate under-competitive positioning rather than a genuinely balanced market.
Median advertised pay by role — Jackson, TN MSA
| Role | 25th percentile | Median advertised pay | 75th percentile | Metro trend | National median |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Controller * | $92,500 | $115,000 | $124,618 | Stable | $112,500 |
| Senior Accountant * | $73,992 | $82,379 | $85,139 | Stable | $87,731 |
| Financial Analyst * | $65,648 | $74,438 | $83,990 | Stable | $82,905 |
| Billing Specialist | $33,280 | $35,522 | $41,767 | Moderate increase | $49,700 |
| Tax Specialist | $31,291 | $56,565 | $60,287 | Significant increase | $66,725 |
| Credit Analyst * | $54,745 | $65,108 | $69,290 | Significant increase | $72,000 |
| FP&A Manager * | $83,283 | $105,863 | $128,819 | Significant decline | $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
Madison County's unemployment rate held near 3.9-4.0% through early 2026, tightening from 4.4% a year prior even as the state's broader financial activities and professional services sectors shed 2,800 jobs combined in August. Jackson's manufacturing-heavy employment base — with production and material-moving roles far exceeding national concentration — leaves the metro's finance and accounting talent pool thin, exposed to statewide contraction in professional services hiring rather than local demand growth.
What it means
Statewide declines in financial activities and professional/technical services jobs suggest Jackson employers drawing from a regional talent pool face a shrinking bench of experienced finance candidates, even as Tennessee's overall labor force shrinks by more than 50,000 workers year-over-year. Locally, FP&A Manager advertised pay sits $21,478 below the national median and trending down significantly — a signal that could reflect either softer local demand or a metro pay structure falling out of step with what multi-state employers now offer for the same scope of work. Consider reviewing FP&A Manager compensation structures against national movement before the next hiring cycle, particularly if roles require multi-entity or FP&A forecasting responsibilities comparable to larger markets.
Looking ahead
Expected: BLS county and MSA-level unemployment data for August 2026 should publish in the coming weeks; watch whether Madison County's improving trend (3.9% in March) held through summer or reversed alongside the state's labor force contraction.
Emerging pressure point: Tennessee's financial activities sector lost 700 jobs in August alone. If this contraction persists into fall, Jackson employers may see modest relief in candidate availability for accounting and analyst-level roles, though manufacturing-driven demand elsewhere in the metro could absorb that supply first.
Worth watching: FP&A Manager advertised pay's significant local decline against a stable national figure warrants tracking next month — a single-month anomaly versus a sustained repricing has very different implications for retention risk in finance leadership pipelines.
Potential inflection point: National AI-skills premiums (up to 56% for technical accounting and FP&A roles) have not yet visibly appeared in Jackson's advertised pay data. Watch whether local employers begin layering AI-adjacent premiums onto Controller and FP&A postings as automation reshapes close-cycle staffing expectations.
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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