Labor Market Pulse · Finance · September 2026
Finance Labor Market Report: NE NONMETROPOLITAN AREA — September 2026
Nebraska finance wages outpace the market — but not locally.
Statewide finance and insurance wages grew 7.1% year-over-year, yet metro Controller pay fell to $96,405 against a $113,754 national median, widening the gap Finance leaders must close to compete.
Free archive edition. Published by WageScape as sent to subscribers; data as of September 2026.
Key indicators
- Nebraska unemployment rate: 2.9% — Unchanged from July 2026 and August 2025
- Finance/insurance wage growth: 7.1% — vs 3.1% all-industry average, Nebraska YoY
- Open jobs per unemployed worker: <1.5 — Down from ~4.0 in 2022, Nebraska
- National financial activities jobs lost: 129,000 — Since May 2025, led by insurance carriers
Key takeaways
Statewide finance wage growth is outrunning general wage trends.
Finance and insurance average weekly wages grew 7.1% year-over-year in Nebraska, more than double the 3.1% all-industry average. Cost escalation assumptions built on blended wage inflation will understate what finance and accounting talent actually costs.
Metro Controller and FP&A pay is falling while national pay climbs.
Local Controller advertised pay sits at $96,405 against a national median of $113,754, and FP&A Manager pay dropped moderately locally while holding stable nationally. Widening local-to-national gaps on senior finance roles raise flight risk for talent who can work remotely for better-paying national employers.
Labor market rebalancing cuts both ways for hiring plans.
Open jobs per unemployed worker in Nebraska fell from near 4:1 in 2022 to under 1.5:1 by July, easing some hiring friction for support roles like Billing Specialist, where metro pay has held stable. Senior finance talent remains the exception — scarcity there is structural, not cyclical, per national CPA shortage data (77% Talent Shortage Index).
Credit Analyst and Tax Specialist pay signal a local pricing gap.
Both roles show significant local pay declines ($55,000 and $43,355 respectively) against significant national increases ($71,758 and $65,842). Persistently underpriced specialist roles in a nonmetro labor pool may be harder to backfill as remote-capable candidates default to nationally competitive postings.
Median advertised pay by role — NE NONMETROPOLITAN AREA
| Role | 25th percentile | Median advertised pay | 75th percentile | Metro trend | National median |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Controller | $86,646 | $96,405 | $106,013 | Significant decline | $113,754 |
| Senior Accountant | $70,642 | $80,211 | $83,990 | Stable | $87,731 |
| Financial Analyst | $80,000 | $100,291 | $112,530 | Stable | $94,782 |
| Billing Specialist | $38,002 | $42,947 | $45,760 | Stable | $49,512 |
| Tax Specialist | $39,797 | $43,355 | $46,479 | Significant decline | $65,842 |
| Credit Analyst | $51,342 | $55,000 | $73,844 | Significant decline | $71,758 |
| FP&A Manager | $102,136 | $117,693 | $130,532 | Moderate decline | $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
Nonmetropolitan Nebraska labor supply remains structurally tight at a statewide 2.9% unemployment rate, but the open-jobs-per-unemployed-worker ratio has fallen from nearly 4:1 in 2022 to under 1.5:1 as of July, signaling a genuine rebalancing rather than a reversal of scarcity. Finance and insurance wages across the state grew 7.1% year-over-year, among the fastest of any tracked industry, even as Kansas City Fed surveys show more Nebraska employers expecting smaller headcounts by early 2026 than those planning increases.
What it means
Rebalancing labor supply combined with persistent finance-sector wage escalation creates a planning tension: headcount growth is slowing statewide, but the roles Finance leaders need most — controllership, FP&A, tax — are getting more expensive to fill, not less. Locally advertised pay for Controller ($96,405) and FP&A Manager ($117,693) has moved down materially even as national medians for the same roles climbed, suggesting metro employers may be under-pricing roles relative to where national competition is heading. Consider reviewing whether current advertised pay ranges for finance leadership roles reflect the gap between local and national trajectories before next cycle's budget is locked.
Looking ahead
Worth watching: Nebraska's new state WARN Act (LB 921) took effect July 17, requiring 90-day notice for mass layoffs — watch whether any nonmetro finance, insurance, or professional services employers file notices in Q4, which would be an early signal of sector-specific contraction reaching rural counties.
Emerging pressure point: National financial activities employment has shed 129,000 jobs since May 2025, concentrated in insurance carriers. If that contraction extends to regional carriers with nonmetro Nebraska operations, local finance talent pools could loosen faster than current advertised pay data suggests.
Expected: Nebraska's minimum wage shift to a fixed 1.75% annual increase (replacing CPI adjustments) begins affecting 2027 budget planning now — Finance leaders building FY2027 labor cost models should confirm which wage floor assumption their compensation teams are using.
Potential inflection point: Kansas City Fed surveys show more Nebraska employers expecting smaller headcounts into early 2026 than those expecting growth. Watch whether that caution extends into finance and accounting specifically, or whether the national 74% hiring-increase intent among F&A leaders holds locally despite the broader state pullback.
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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