Labor Market Pulse · Finance · September 2026
Finance Labor Market Report: Jacksonville, FL MSA — September 2026
Jacksonville finance pay splits: FP&A surges, Controllers soften.
Metro FP&A Manager pay has climbed to $143,396 versus a $128,139 national median, even as Controller pay slipped to $111,490 and the metro's Financial Activities sector shed 4,000 jobs over the year.
Free archive edition. Published by WageScape as sent to subscribers; data as of September 2026.
Key indicators
- Duval County unemployment: 4.9% — Up from 4.2% year-ago; highest among metro's five counties
- Metro nonfarm job growth: 0.1% — 500 jobs added in 12 months through August 2026
- Local Financial Activities jobs: -4,000 — Year-over-year decline through June 2026
- National avg hourly earnings growth: 3.0% y/y — Below 3.2% forecast; easing broad wage pressure
Key takeaways
FP&A Manager pay is pulling away from the national market.
Metro advertised pay for FP&A Manager sits at $143,396 against a national median of $128,139 — a gap that has widened significantly this cycle. This is consistent with national reporting that finance leaders are paying premiums for forecasting, modeling and ERP expertise amid a documented CPA and analyst shortage; budget cycles built on last year's FP&A comp data likely understate current market cost.
Controller pay is softening even as the role stays hard to fill.
Metro Controller advertised pay slipped to $111,490, down from the national median of $113,754 and moving against the broader national trend of rising senior finance compensation. This divergence may reflect Jacksonville's Financial Activities job losses (down 4,000 positions over the year) compressing local demand for senior oversight roles even as skills scarcity persists nationally — a signal worth testing against actual time-to-fill data before assuming softer pay is sustainable.
Credit Analyst compensation is outrunning the national market.
Local advertised pay for Credit Analyst reached $77,406, up significantly and now exceeding the national median of $71,758. Rising consumer and commercial credit scrutiny in a 4.8%-unemployment environment appears to be driving demand for underwriting and risk expertise faster locally than nationally, a candidate for upward budget revision ahead of 2027 planning cycles.
Flat headcount doesn't mean flat cost.
Jacksonville's net nonfarm job growth of just 0.1% masks significant internal reallocation — Education and Health Services expanding 4.8% while Financial Activities and Government contract. Finance leaders modeling flat headcount costs into FY2027 budgets should separate volume assumptions from rate assumptions, since several finance roles are seeing real pay movement despite the metro's overall hiring freeze-like conditions.
Median advertised pay by role — Jacksonville, FL MSA
| Role | 25th percentile | Median advertised pay | 75th percentile | Metro trend | National median |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Controller | $82,954 | $111,490 | $125,000 | Moderate decline | $113,754 |
| Senior Accountant | $72,085 | $80,407 | $83,000 | Stable | $87,731 |
| Financial Analyst | $72,800 | $90,000 | $96,950 | Stable | $94,782 |
| Billing Specialist | $35,123 | $42,640 | $50,000 | Stable | $49,512 |
| Tax Specialist | $40,583 | $63,213 | $71,841 | Stable | $65,842 |
| Credit Analyst | $54,767 | $77,406 | $83,249 | Significant increase | $71,758 |
| FP&A Manager | $113,608 | $143,396 | $155,396 | Significant increase | $128,139 |
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
Jacksonville's unemployment rate held near 4.8% in August, with Duval County at 4.9% and nonfarm job growth nearly flat at 0.1% over the trailing twelve months — one of the softest readings among major Florida metros. Financial Activities locally shed 4,000 jobs over the year even as national finance and accounting leaders report a sharpening CPA and specialized-skills shortage, a divergence that points to local headcount consolidation layered on top of a structurally tightening finance talent pipeline.
What it means
Soft net job growth and a shrinking local Financial Activities base suggest Jacksonville Finance functions are consolidating roles rather than expanding broadly, even as national data shows 74% of finance leaders planning permanent headcount increases and 87% paying premiums for specialized skills. That tension — local contraction against national scarcity-driven wage pressure — means standard headcount budgets may understate true cost-to-hire for technical roles like FP&A and credit analysis. Consider reviewing budget assumptions role-by-role rather than applying a flat market adjustment, since Controller pay is softening locally while FP&A Manager and Credit Analyst pay are climbing well above national rates.
Looking ahead
Expected: Florida's minimum wage rises to $15.00 on September 30, with tipped wages moving to $11.98, and automatic CPI-W indexing beginning thereafter. Finance teams should build perpetual annual wage escalation into long-range headcount cost models rather than treating this as a one-time adjustment.
Emerging pressure point: Duval County unemployment at 4.9% is the highest among the metro's five counties, while Nassau sits at 4.6% — a gap that may widen local pay differentials for roles recruiting across county lines. Watch whether Finance hiring shifts toward lower-unemployment counties for cost advantage.
Early indicator: National Financial Activities employment has lost 129,000 jobs since May 2025, concentrated in insurance carriers; Jacksonville's own 4,000-job Financial Activities decline tracks this trend. Monitor whether further national contraction reaches Jacksonville's sizable insurance and financial services employer base over Q4.
Potential inflection point: National average hourly earnings growth decelerated to 3.0% year-over-year in September, below consensus and easing broad wage pressure, even as finance-specific compensation reportedly nearly doubled year-over-year for specialized roles. Expect this bifurcation — soft headline wage growth, sharp finance-specialist premiums — to persist into fiscal 2027 budget negotiations.
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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