Labor Market Pulse · Finance · September 2026
Finance Labor Market Report: Macon, GA MSA — September 2026
Macon's finance labor market: soft payrolls, tight senior talent.
Bibb County payrolls fell 3,629 jobs year-over-year even as Georgia's statewide unemployment hit a record-low 3.2%, and Macon Controller pay climbed to a $164,790 median — 45% above the national figure.
Free archive edition. Published by WageScape as sent to subscribers; data as of September 2026.
Key indicators
- Bibb County unemployment: 4.3% — vs 3.2% Georgia statewide, 4.1% U.S.
- Bibb County payroll change: -3,629 jobs — Year-over-year, 2025 vs 2024
- Atlanta Fed Wage Growth Tracker: 4.1% — Up from 3.8% prior month (August)
- Georgia finance/stats vacancy growth: +4.9% — Year-over-year through June 2026
Key takeaways
Macon's unemployment and payroll data are telling different stories.
Bibb County unemployment reads 4.3% while the broader Bibb Area sits at 3.4%, yet county payrolls declined 3,629 jobs year-over-year. Treat local labor-market tightness claims with caution until a consistent trend emerges across both measures.
Controller pay in Macon is outrunning the national market.
Local Controller advertised pay median of $164,790 is up significantly and sits 45% above the $113,754 national median. This gap is consistent with a thin senior-finance candidate pool in a mid-sized metro rather than a broad compensation reset, and should be weighed against actual time-to-fill data before adjusting bands metro-wide.
Senior Accountant pay is falling locally while holding nationally.
Metro Senior Accountant advertised pay dropped significantly even as the national median held stable near $87,731. Falling local demand for this role may reflect automation and shared-services absorption consistent with the national F&A trend of flat hiring in transactional functions.
National financial-sector job losses haven't reached Macon's hiring plans.
Financial activities shed 7,000 jobs nationally in September and have lost 129,000 since May 2025, concentrated in insurance carriers, yet 74% of finance and accounting leaders nationally still plan to increase permanent headcount in H2 2026. Macon employers should expect continued competition for scarce accounting and FP&A talent even as the sector's topline job count contracts elsewhere.
Median advertised pay by role — Macon, GA MSA
| Role | 25th percentile | Median advertised pay | 75th percentile | Metro trend | National median |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Controller | $164,789 | $164,790 | $164,790 | Significant increase | $113,754 |
| Senior Accountant | $71,707 | $71,707 | $71,707 | Significant decline | $87,731 |
| Financial Analyst | $67,281 | $88,088 | $96,534 | Moderate increase | $94,782 |
| Billing Specialist | $33,824 | $39,520 | $47,840 | Significant increase | $49,512 |
| Tax Specialist | $37,440 | $57,891 | $58,146 | Significant increase | $65,842 |
| Credit Analyst * | $54,020 | $70,632 | $77,388 | Moderate increase | $71,758 |
| FP&A Manager * | $101,279 | $116,719 | $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
Macon-Bibb's labor market presents a paradox Finance leaders should scrutinize before relying on it: Bibb County unemployment sits at a soft 4.3% even as Georgia posts a record-low 3.2% statewide rate, and Bibb County payrolls fell by 3,629 jobs year-over-year despite the low jobless reading. Statewide finance and statistics vacancies grew 4.9% year-over-year through June, suggesting metro Finance roles are being pulled into a tighter state and national competitive set even as local headcount softens.
What it means
Divergence between a soft local labor market and a historically tight state market complicates headcount cost planning — Macon employers may not feel local wage pressure the way Atlanta or statewide averages suggest, but recruiting for Controller or FP&A-level talent likely means competing against statewide demand and Atlanta Fed wage growth running at 4.1%. Advertised pay for Controller roles locally has moved up significantly to a $164,790 median, well above the $113,754 national figure, which may reflect a thin senior finance bench in Macon rather than a broad-based local wage trend. Consider reviewing whether Macon-specific compensation ranges for senior finance roles are being set off stale local comparables rather than the regional competitive set actually driving candidate expectations.
Looking ahead
Data gap to monitor: Official metro-level BLS unemployment data for Macon lags through December 2025, leaving Finance leaders reliant on county-level Georgia Department of Labor releases. Watch for the next Georgia DOL monthly update to confirm whether Bibb County's softer payroll trend persists or reverses.
Emerging pressure point: Georgia's finance and statistics vacancies grew 4.9% year-over-year through June while the state posted record employment and a 3.2% unemployment rate. If this tightness persists into Q4 budget cycles, expect upward pressure on Macon-area offers for mid-to-senior finance roles sourced from the statewide labor pool.
Potential inflection point: National average hourly earnings growth decelerated to 3.0% year-over-year in September, below the 3.2% consensus estimate, easing wage-budget pressure mid-cycle. Whether this deceleration reaches Georgia, where the Atlanta Fed Wage Growth Tracker just rose to 4.1%, will matter for FY2027 compensation planning assumptions.
Worth watching: Georgia recorded only 17 WARN filings in the most recent quarter versus 33 the prior quarter, suggesting layoff activity is easing statewide. Fewer displaced workers entering the candidate pool could sustain the hiring difficulty Macon finance teams are already reporting for senior roles.
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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