Labor Market Pulse · Finance · September 2026
Finance Labor Market Report: Lawrence, KS MSA — September 2026
Lawrence finance pay splits: leadership roles up, support roles flat.
Controller pay hit a metro median of $113,971 and FP&A Manager pay rose to $116,040, even as Douglas County unemployment edged up to 4.2% and national Financial Activities payrolls kept contracting.
Free archive edition. Published by WageScape as sent to subscribers; data as of September 2026.
Key indicators
- Douglas County unemployment: 4.2% — Up from 4.1% in July; above 3.8% Kansas statewide
- National Financial Activities job losses: -129,000 — Since May 2025, led by insurance carriers
- F&A hiring intent: 74% — Finance leaders planning permanent headcount growth, 2H 2026
- National wage growth deceleration: 3.0% YoY — September average hourly earnings, below 3.2% forecast
Key takeaways
Finance headcount story is bifurcated, not uniformly contracting.
National Financial Activities payrolls lost 7,000 jobs in September and 129,000 since May 2025, concentrated in insurance carriers, while 74% of finance and accounting leaders report plans to grow permanent headcount. Budget cycle assumptions built on sector-wide contraction likely miss where actual hiring pressure sits — controllership and FP&A roles, not back-office processing.
Controller and FP&A Manager pay are pulling away from the rest of finance.
Metro Controller pay rose to a median $113,971 and FP&A Manager pay climbed to $116,040, both trending up, while Senior Accountant ($82,769) and Credit Analyst ($62,577) held stable. Compensation benchmarking cycles that treat finance as one cost pool risk underfunding retention at the leadership tier where demand is actually accelerating.
Tax Specialist pay decline locally cuts against the national grain.
Metro Tax Specialist advertised pay dropped significantly to $43,229, even as the national median rose significantly to $65,842 amid a broader CPA and accountant talent shortage. A gap this wide may signal a thin local candidate pool is suppressing posted rates rather than reflecting genuine demand softness — worth validating before setting a hiring budget for this role.
Interim and project staffing is becoming the default flex-capacity tool.
Regional Fed contacts report climbing interim and project-based hiring in accounting, IT, and operations amid mixed economic signals, a pattern that fits automation-driven restraint in F&A permanent headcount nationally. Audit season and close-cycle staffing plans may increasingly lean on contract talent rather than new permanent requisitions.
Median advertised pay by role — Lawrence, KS MSA
| Role | 25th percentile | Median advertised pay | 75th percentile | Metro trend | National median |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Controller | $107,500 | $113,971 | $115,000 | Significant increase | $113,754 |
| Senior Accountant | $68,717 | $82,769 | $83,203 | Stable | $87,731 |
| Financial Analyst | $70,000 | $76,719 | $76,719 | Moderate increase | $94,782 |
| Billing Specialist * | $33,532 | $38,160 | $44,720 | Stable | $49,512 |
| Tax Specialist | $32,995 | $43,229 | $44,489 | Significant decline | $65,842 |
| Credit Analyst * | $55,160 | $62,577 | $65,479 | Stable | $71,758 |
| FP&A Manager * | $95,790 | $116,040 | $129,880 | Moderate increase | $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
Douglas County unemployment ticked up to 4.2% in August, tracking above both the Kansas state rate of 3.8% and reflecting job growth concentrated in construction and leisure/hospitality while financial activities and retail employment contracted over the year. Kansas Financial Activities payrolls fell 600 jobs in April (-0.8% year-over-year), consistent with the national pattern of finance sector contraction — the industry has shed 129,000 positions nationally since May 2025, led by insurance carriers.
What it means
National finance sector job losses are coinciding with an unusual hiring posture — 74% of finance and accounting leaders plan to increase permanent headcount in the second half of 2026, and the 2026 Talent Shortage Index jumped to 77% from a 2025 Talent Surplus of 108%, signaling that headcount reductions are concentrated in specific subsectors (insurance, back-office processing) rather than reflecting broad finance talent oversupply. Lawrence metro Controller pay rose to a median $113,971, nearly matching the national figure, while FP&A Manager pay climbed to $116,040 locally against $128,139 nationally — both moving up even as Senior Accountant and Credit Analyst pay held flat, suggesting employers are concentrating scarce compensation dollars on senior finance leadership rather than broad-based raises. Organizations should evaluate whether budget cycle planning assumes uniform finance labor cost inflation, when local data suggests the pressure is concentrated at the Controller and FP&A Manager levels.
Looking ahead
Emerging pressure point: Douglas County unemployment has drifted from 4.1% to 4.2% over two months even as Kansas statewide holds at 3.8%, a local divergence worth tracking for signs of metro-specific softening in finance hiring pipelines.
Worth watching: National average hourly earnings growth decelerated to 3.0% year-over-year in September, below the 3.2% expected, easing near-term wage budget pressure — watch whether this translates to flatter advertised pay for Lawrence finance roles beyond Controller and FP&A Manager.
Potential inflection point: Kansas Financial Activities payrolls contracted 0.8% in April; confirm whether Q3 2026 data shows this stabilizing or deepening, as it bears directly on whether Lawrence-area finance hiring freezes are temporary or structural.
Early indicator: Zero WARN notices filed in Kansas over the trailing 90 days as of late September suggests no imminent local talent influx from layoffs — a tight labor supply backdrop that may keep Controller and FP&A Manager advertised pay elevated into Q4.
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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