Labor Market Pulse · Finance · September 2026
Finance Labor Market Report: Omaha-Council Bluffs, NE-IA MSA — September 2026
Omaha finance pay outpaces a cooling metro labor market.
Nebraska finance and insurance wages grew 7.1% year-over-year against a 3.1% statewide average, even as metro job openings per unemployed worker fell below 1.5 from nearly 4-to-1 in 2022.
Free archive edition. Published by WageScape as sent to subscribers; data as of September 2026.
Key indicators
- Finance sector wage growth (NE): 7.1% — vs 3.1% all-industry average statewide
- Metro unemployment rate: 2.6% — Omaha MSA, July 2026
- Jobs-to-unemployed ratio (NE): <1.5 to 1 — Down from ~4 to 1 in 2022
- National F&A talent shortage index: 77% — Up from 108% surplus in 2025
Key takeaways
Finance sector pay is outrunning the metro's cooling labor market.
Nebraska finance and insurance weekly wages grew 7.1% year-over-year, more than double the 3.1% statewide average, even as overall job openings per unemployed worker have fallen sharply since 2022. Budget cycles built on flat statewide wage assumptions likely understate finance-specific cost escalation.
FP&A Manager pay is sliding locally while holding firm nationally.
Metro advertised pay for FP&A Manager fell significantly to $110,105, nearly $18,000 below the stable national median of $128,139. Widening gap may reflect softer local demand for senior planning talent or a recalibration after prior-period overpricing — worth validating against actual requisition data before resetting bands downward.
National accounting shortage signals are arriving ahead of local hiring data.
A national swing from a 108% talent surplus in 2025 to a 77% shortage index in 2026 for F&A roles, paired with 74% of finance leaders planning headcount growth, suggests Omaha's Senior Accountant pay (stable at $78,808 metro) may be due for upward pressure even though it hasn't moved yet.
Conservative Q4 headcount assumptions look warranted, not cautious.
Kansas City Fed's September survey shows more Nebraska employers anticipating smaller headcounts by early 2026 than larger ones, consistent with WARN filings showing reduced 2026 layoff volume but also reduced hiring urgency. Workforce plans built on 2022-era tightness assumptions should be revisited.
Median advertised pay by role — Omaha-Council Bluffs, NE-IA MSA
| Role | 25th percentile | Median advertised pay | 75th percentile | Metro trend | National median |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Controller | $83,200 | $109,884 | $117,442 | Stable | $113,754 |
| Senior Accountant | $70,239 | $78,808 | $82,162 | Stable | $87,731 |
| Financial Analyst | $70,827 | $87,500 | $92,649 | Moderate increase | $94,782 |
| Billing Specialist | $43,680 | $54,939 | $61,339 | Moderate increase | $49,512 |
| Tax Specialist | $43,424 | $64,464 | $72,500 | Moderate increase | $65,842 |
| Credit Analyst | $57,681 | $67,230 | $74,380 | Moderate increase | $71,758 |
| FP&A Manager * | $87,514 | $110,105 | $117,729 | Significant 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
Omaha's 2.6% metro unemployment rate (July 2026) masks a cooling undercurrent: statewide job openings per unemployed worker have fallen below 1.5, down from nearly 4-to-1 in 2022, and the Kansas City Fed's September survey shows more Nebraska employers expecting smaller headcounts than larger ones heading into early 2026. Finance and insurance stands apart from this slowdown, with average weekly wages up 7.1% year-over-year statewide — the second-fastest growth of any tracked industry — even as national financial activities payrolls have contracted by 129,000 since May 2025.
What it means
Local finance-sector wage growth running well above the statewide 3.1% average, against a national backdrop of insurance-driven job losses, suggests Omaha's finance talent pool is tightening on quality even as aggregate headcount pressure eases — a divergence that complicates flat-budget headcount planning. National F&A hiring data showing 74% of leaders planning permanent headcount increases alongside a CPA shortage index flip from surplus to 77% scarcity indicates compensation escalation in accounting and finance roles may outpace the broader labor market softening local unemployment figures imply. Current conditions suggest reviewing 2027 compensation forecasts for finance-specific roles separately from general merit budget assumptions, given the sector's wage trajectory is decoupling from headline metro labor market cooling.
Looking ahead
Worth watching: Nebraska's Labor Availability and Hiring Needs Report, released September 23, should surface metro-specific detail on finance and accounting hiring friction beyond the headline 2.9% unemployment rate. Early findings on AI adoption in finance workflows may bear on headcount planning for transactional roles.
Emerging pressure point: National financial activities payrolls losses are concentrated in insurance carriers (-90,000 since May 2025); watch whether Omaha's substantial insurance sector employer base shows any lag effect in local WARN filings or advertised postings over Q4.
Early indicator: National average hourly earnings growth decelerated to 3.0% year-over-year in September, below expectations — if this trend persists, it could ease pressure on 2027 merit budget assumptions even as Nebraska finance-sector wages continue outpacing the broader average.
Potential inflection point: CPA and accountant talent shortage signals (national shortage index of 77%, up from 2025 surplus) have not yet shown up in Omaha's stable Senior Accountant advertised pay. A shift here would be a leading signal for broader finance compensation band reviews.
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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