Labor Market Pulse · Finance · September 2026
Finance Labor Market Report: Rochester, NY MSA — September 2026
Rochester finance pay splits: planning roles rise, compliance roles soften.
FP&A Manager pay climbed to $122,231 and Financial Analyst pay to $87,497 in Rochester even as Controller pay slipped to $105,000, mirroring a national financial-activities sector that has shed 129,000 jobs since May 2025.
Free archive edition. Published by WageScape as sent to subscribers; data as of September 2026.
Key indicators
- Metro unemployment rate: 4.2% — Up from 4.0% in June 2026
- Rochester nonfarm payrolls: -0.5% YoY — 514.4K jobs as of July 2026
- National financial activities jobs: -129,000 — Lost since May 2025, led by insurance
- National wage growth: 3.0% YoY — Below 3.2% forecast, eases budget pressure
Key takeaways
FP&A talent is getting expensive while Controller roles soften.
FP&A Manager advertised pay rose significantly to $122,231 locally while Controller pay slipped to $105,000, a reversal of the usual hierarchy. This likely reflects employers paying a premium for forward-looking planning capability even as they hold the line on traditional close-and-compliance leadership pay.
Rochester's finance contraction tracks a national, not local, story.
Nonfarm payrolls fell 0.5% year-over-year through July alongside a national loss of 129,000 financial activities jobs since May 2025, concentrated in insurance carriers. Workforce planning should treat this as sector-driven headwind rather than a metro-specific risk signal.
Financial Analyst pay is pulling away from the national median.
Metro Financial Analyst pay rose significantly to $87,497, closing in on the $94,782 national figure, even as NYC reports 128 applicants per analyst opening. Tight analytical talent in upstate markets may be forcing employers to bid up pay faster than larger metros where candidate supply remains deep.
Cooling national wage growth offers budget relief, but not locally universal.
National average hourly earnings grew just 3.0% year-over-year in September, below forecast, easing pressure on blended compensation budgets. Rochester's mixed role-level movement — Tax Specialist and FP&A Manager up, Controller and Billing Specialist down — means that relief won't apply evenly across finance job families.
Median advertised pay by role — Rochester, NY MSA
| Role | 25th percentile | Median advertised pay | 75th percentile | Metro trend | National median |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Controller | $83,200 | $105,000 | $113,690 | Moderate decline | $113,754 |
| Senior Accountant | $73,444 | $82,120 | $84,701 | Stable | $87,731 |
| Financial Analyst | $70,450 | $87,497 | $90,306 | Significant increase | $94,782 |
| Billing Specialist | $37,297 | $43,680 | $48,945 | Moderate decline | $49,512 |
| Tax Specialist | $40,976 | $55,744 | $69,626 | Moderate increase | $65,842 |
| Credit Analyst | $54,191 | $63,792 | $69,569 | Stable | $71,758 |
| FP&A Manager | $104,344 | $122,231 | $124,423 | 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
Rochester's labor market continued its gradual softening in August, with metro unemployment at 4.2% and Monroe County at 4.4%, while nonfarm payrolls fell 0.5% year-over-year through July as manufacturing, financial services, and professional services shed headcount. That contraction maps directly onto the national finance sector pattern — insurance carriers and related activities account for most of the 129,000 jobs lost nationally in financial activities since May 2025 — suggesting Rochester's finance employers are participating in a broader structural retrenchment, not a local anomaly.
What it means
Headcount cost planning should account for a bifurcated finance labor market: metro Controller pay is softening ($105,000, down moderately) even as FP&A Manager ($122,231) and Financial Analyst ($87,497) roles post significant local gains, indicating budget cycles need role-level rather than department-level pay assumptions. National F&A leaders report 74% plan to grow permanent headcount despite sector job losses, pointing to selective rebuilding around analytical and planning functions rather than broad-based finance hiring. Consider reviewing budget-cycle compensation benchmarks by role family rather than by function, since blended finance-department averages are likely masking real divergence in hiring urgency and pay pressure.
Looking ahead
Worth watching: Monroe County unemployment has risen for three consecutive readings to 4.4%. A continued climb alongside falling nonfarm payrolls would signal broader cost-cutting pressure reaching finance departments beyond the national insurance-led contraction.
Early indicator: Entry-level postings requiring AI skills jumped from 11% to 33% in six months regionally. Watch whether this reshapes expected qualifications and pay for junior Financial Analyst and Senior Accountant postings over the next two quarters.
Potential inflection point: National F&A hiring indexes show a shift from talent surplus (108% in 2025) to a 77% shortage index in 2026, with nearly half of organizations expecting direct labor rate increases above 4%. If that national tightening reaches Rochester, expect upward pressure on Senior Accountant and Tax Specialist advertised pay, both currently stable-to-moderate locally.
Expected: Fed Beige Book notes stiff payroll cost increases in manufacturing and construction statewide. Finance leaders supporting those business units should anticipate labor cost variance pressure flowing into Q4 forecasts even where finance department headcount itself stays flat.
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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