Labor Market Pulse · Finance · September 2026
Finance Labor Market Report: Rome, GA MSA — September 2026
Rome finance pay splits: analysts surge, FP&A managers retreat.
Rome MSA Financial Analyst advertised pay climbed to $106,860 — above the $94,782 national median — while FP&A Manager pay slipped to $116,719 even as metro unemployment tightened to 3.3% from 3.9% a year ago.
Free archive edition. Published by WageScape as sent to subscribers; data as of September 2026.
Key indicators
- Rome MSA unemployment: 3.3% — Down from 3.9% a year ago
- Georgia unemployment: 3.2% — 0.9 pts below national 4.1% rate
- Financial Analyst advertised pay (metro): $106,860 — vs $94,782 national median
- National financial-sector job losses: -129,000 — Since May 2025, BLS payrolls
Key takeaways
Financial Analyst pay is outrunning the national market.
Metro median advertised pay of $106,860 now sits above the $94,782 national figure, a reversal from typical secondary-metro patterns. This likely reflects a thin local bench rather than a structural shift in demand — budget accordingly rather than assuming the premium holds.
FP&A Manager pay is softening against a tightening labor market.
Metro FP&A Manager median fell to $116,719, a moderate decline even as unemployment tightened year-over-year. Divergence between falling advertised pay and a tighter labor pool may suggest fewer active postings rather than reduced demand — worth confirming before assuming softened compensation pressure.
Tax Specialist pay surged locally but remains well below national levels.
Metro median jumped significantly to $39,464, still less than two-thirds of the $65,842 national figure. Gap this wide suggests Rome employers have been under-pricing the role and are now correcting — a pattern worth checking against actual time-to-fill data.
Statewide finance vacancy growth outpaces Rome's labor force expansion.
Georgia finance and statistics vacancies grew 4.9% year-over-year while Rome's unemployment rate sits at 3.3%, near a multi-year low. Recruiting into Rome from larger Georgia metros may require pay parity with state, not metro, medians for mid-to-senior finance roles.
Median advertised pay by role — Rome, GA MSA
| Role | 25th percentile | Median advertised pay | 75th percentile | Metro trend | National median |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Controller | $103,268 | $103,278 | $103,279 | Moderate increase | $113,754 |
| Senior Accountant * | $74,905 | $85,000 | $87,717 | Stable | $87,731 |
| Financial Analyst | $89,145 | $106,860 | $106,860 | Significant increase | $94,782 |
| Billing Specialist * | $35,880 | $45,128 | $52,947 | Stable | $49,512 |
| Tax Specialist | $25,552 | $39,464 | $41,790 | 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
Rome MSA unemployment ticked up to 3.3% in August but remains sharply below the 3.9% reading a year earlier, signaling a labor market that has tightened meaningfully even as month-to-month volatility persists. Statewide finance and statistics vacancies rose 4.9% year-over-year through June, and Georgia's record labor force participation has not eased competition for finance talent in secondary metros like Rome.
What it means
Local Financial Analyst advertised pay has moved up significantly to a $106,860 median — now exceeding the national figure of $94,782 — a sign that Rome employers are bidding aggressively for analytical talent even in a metro with a smaller finance labor pool. That dynamic sits against a national backdrop of financial-sector job losses (down 129,000 since May 2025) and decelerating wage growth (3.0% y/y in September), meaning Rome's local pressure is diverging from the national contraction story and likely reflects scarcity rather than sector growth. Consider benchmarking FP&A and analyst roles against local market movement rather than national averages when building FY2027 headcount budgets.
Looking ahead
Worth watching: National financial-sector job losses have concentrated in insurance carriers; watch whether any Rome-area insurance or financial-services employers appear in Georgia's WARN filings, which currently show just 18 notices statewide in the last 90 days.
Emerging pressure point: Local Financial Analyst and Tax Specialist pay have moved up significantly this month while FP&A Manager pay softened — a split signal that could reflect uneven demand across finance subfunctions rather than a uniform market tightening.
Potential inflection point: National average hourly earnings growth decelerated to 3.0% y/y in September, below expectations, which could ease FY2027 salary budget planning if the trend holds through Rome's local postings data over the next two reporting cycles.
Expected: Georgia's labor force and employment both sit at all-time highs; expect continued competition for finance talent from Atlanta-area employers able to offer remote or hybrid arrangements into the Rome labor shed.
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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