Labor Market Pulse · Finance · September 2026
Finance Labor Market Report: Ogden-Clearfield, UT MSA — September 2026
Ogden Finance pay splits sharply by role as hiring cools.
Weber County employment fell 1.1% year-over-year even as Financial Analyst pay rose to $92,059 and FP&A Manager pay climbed to $126,044, while Controller and Billing Specialist pay both declined.
Free archive edition. Published by WageScape as sent to subscribers; data as of September 2026.
Key indicators
- Weber County employment: 125,027 — Down 1.1% vs August 2025
- Ogden-Clearfield unemployment: 3.5% — vs 4.1% national, 3.5% Utah
- National Financial Activities jobs: -129,000 — Lost since May 2025, mostly insurance
- F&A talent shortage index: 77% — Up from 108% surplus reading in 2025
Key takeaways
Financial Analyst pay is rising while the sector cools.
Metro median advertised pay for Financial Analysts climbed to $92,059, a significant increase even as Weber County's overall job count fell year-over-year. That divergence suggests analytical and FP&A-adjacent talent is being bid up locally despite softer headline hiring, a pattern worth separating from broader market cooling in workforce plans.
Billing Specialist pay is dropping sharply in Ogden.
Metro median advertised pay for Billing Specialists fell significantly to $43,992 while the national figure rose moderately to $49,512, a reversal that may reflect automation absorbing transactional finance work locally faster than elsewhere. Organizations benchmarking this role against national data risk overpaying for a function the local market is already discounting.
FP&A Manager compensation reflects a scarcity premium, not inflation.
Metro median pay for FP&A Manager roles rose significantly to $126,044, nearly matching the national figure of $128,139 despite Ogden's smaller labor market. This is consistent with national F&A hiring data showing nearly half of organizations expecting direct labor rate increases above 4% in labor-scarce functions.
Controller and Senior Accountant pay are both softening locally.
Metro Controller pay fell moderately to $110,354 and Senior Accountant pay fell moderately to $80,999, both trailing national medians and running counter to the upward pressure seen in analyst and tax roles. Current conditions suggest demand has concentrated in forward-looking analytical functions while traditional accounting and oversight roles face comparatively softer local demand.
Median advertised pay by role — Ogden-Clearfield, UT MSA
| Role | 25th percentile | Median advertised pay | 75th percentile | Metro trend | National median |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Controller | $79,953 | $110,354 | $118,914 | Moderate decline | $113,754 |
| Senior Accountant | $56,109 | $80,999 | $86,875 | Moderate decline | $87,731 |
| Financial Analyst | $69,437 | $92,059 | $102,501 | Significant increase | $94,782 |
| Billing Specialist | $36,965 | $43,992 | $50,534 | Significant decline | $49,512 |
| Tax Specialist | $42,347 | $70,000 | $84,610 | Moderate increase | $65,842 |
| Credit Analyst | $52,500 | $61,114 | $67,086 | Moderate increase | $71,758 |
| FP&A Manager | $98,256 | $126,044 | $127,609 | 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
Weber County employment slipped 1.1% year-over-year to 125,027 jobs in August 2026 even as the Ogden-Clearfield unemployment rate held at a tight 3.5%, a divergence consistent with Utah's broader shift from expansion to retention mode as job openings and quit rates decline statewide. Financial Activities remains one of the metro's few growth sectors, up 1.9% locally, running counter to the national contraction of 129,000 finance jobs since May 2025 and signaling Ogden's Finance labor pool is tightening even as the sector sheds headcount nationally.
What it means
Ogden Finance leaders are operating in a market where headcount is essentially flat but talent is scarcer, meaning open seats in specialized roles will take longer to fill and attrition carries outsized replacement cost even though the broader economy is cooling. National F&A hiring intentions are aggressive — 74% of leaders plan to add permanent headcount against a 2026 Talent Shortage Index of 77% — while Ogden's Financial Analyst pay has moved up significantly, a local signal that demand is outpacing the typical candidate pipeline for analytical roles. Consider reviewing headcount plans for analyst-tier positions against actual time-to-fill data rather than historical norms, since local employment cooling masks real scarcity in specific job families.
Looking ahead
Worth watching: Utah's 2026 WARN filings are concentrated in healthcare, manufacturing, and education rather than finance, but Tyson Fresh Meats' 723-job Eagle Mountain notice shows single filings can move county-level labor statistics quickly. Watch whether any displaced workers carry transferable finance or accounting skills into the Ogden candidate pool.
Emerging pressure point: National Financial Activities employment has contracted by 129,000 jobs since May 2025, concentrated in insurance carriers, while Ogden's sector has moved in the opposite direction. Sustained divergence raises the question of whether national finance layoffs begin surfacing relocating talent into Utah's tighter regional market over Q4.
Potential inflection point: National average hourly earnings growth decelerated to 3.0% year-over-year in September, below economist expectations, easing aggregate wage budget pressure even as Ogden's Financial Analyst and FP&A Manager pay move higher. Finance leaders should expect this gap between national wage deceleration and local role-specific premiums to widen before it narrows.
Expected: Utah's demographic headwinds — a below-replacement fertility rate and slowing immigration — are structural, not cyclical, constraining long-term labor supply for specialized Finance roles. Budget cycles planned around near-term cooling should still account for a tightening multi-year talent pipeline in analytical and management-tier positions.
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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