Labor Market Pulse · Finance · September 2026
Finance Labor Market Report: San Antonio, TX MSA — September 2026
San Antonio finance pay lags state and nation despite tight talent signals.
San Antonio wage growth ran just 1.3% year-over-year in June versus 3.5% nationally, even as the national F&A Talent Shortage Index swung from a 108% surplus to a 77% shortage.
Free archive edition. Published by WageScape as sent to subscribers; data as of September 2026.
Key indicators
- Metro wage growth: 1.3% — vs 2.9% Texas, 3.5% U.S. (June 2026)
- F&A Talent Shortage Index: 77% — vs 108% surplus reading in 2025
- Metro unemployment rate: 4.5% — vs 4.4% Texas, 4.1% U.S. (August 2026)
- National financial activities job losses: 129,000 — Cumulative since May 2025, led by insurance carriers
Key takeaways
San Antonio finance wages are lagging, not just flat.
Metro wage growth of 1.3% year-over-year in June sits far below the state's 2.9% and the nation's 3.5%, a gap wide enough to erode retention leverage even where headcount budgets are tight. Finance leaders benchmarking against statewide Texas wage data risk understating the local pay gap.
FP&A talent is getting more expensive to replace, not hire.
FP&A Manager advertised pay in San Antonio fell to $117,767, a significant decline versus the stable national median of $128,139. A widening local-national gap on a strategically important role is consistent with either underinvestment in retention or a shrinking local candidate pool willing to work below national rates.
Financial activities' national contraction has not reached San Antonio hiring yet.
National financial activities employment has shed 129,000 jobs since May 2025, concentrated in insurance carriers, but metro-level finance headcount data shows no parallel local collapse. Finance leaders should treat national sector softness as an early warning rather than an assumption already priced into local hiring conditions.
Tax Specialist pay signals a local-national disconnect worth investigating.
Metro Tax Specialist advertised pay declined moderately to $56,138 while the national median rose significantly to $65,842, one of the widest role-level divergences in this month's data. Consider whether this reflects genuine local labor surplus or a classification/scope mismatch distorting the comparison.
Median advertised pay by role — San Antonio, TX MSA
| Role | 25th percentile | Median advertised pay | 75th percentile | Metro trend | National median |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Controller | $91,642 | $116,157 | $123,472 | Moderate increase | $113,754 |
| Senior Accountant | $75,998 | $84,502 | $86,980 | Stable | $87,731 |
| Financial Analyst | $68,508 | $84,280 | $93,318 | Moderate increase | $94,782 |
| Billing Specialist | $35,550 | $43,680 | $50,000 | Stable | $49,512 |
| Tax Specialist | $42,851 | $56,138 | $69,522 | Moderate decline | $65,842 |
| Credit Analyst | $60,968 | $70,000 | $72,764 | Moderate increase | $71,758 |
| FP&A Manager | $102,219 | $117,767 | $123,838 | Significant 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
San Antonio-New Braunfels payrolls lost 1,600 workers year-over-year in August even as Texas added 159,400 jobs statewide, with the metro's 1.3% June wage growth trailing Texas (2.9%) and the nation (3.5%) by a wide margin. National financial activities shed 7,000 jobs in September — part of a 129,000-job contraction since May 2025 concentrated in insurance carriers — while information-sector losses locally (down 6.6% to 7.7%) compound the metro's underperformance relative to Austin's 7,500 August job gains.
What it means
Soft local wage growth combined with a national finance hiring slowdown gives Finance leaders unusual budget breathing room for base-pay increases, but the national F&A Talent Shortage Index jumping from a 2025 Surplus of 108% to a 2026 Shortage of 77% signals that controller, FP&A, and accounting talent will not stay cheap for long. San Antonio's FP&A Manager advertised pay fell significantly (down to $117,767 metro median against $128,139 nationally), a gap that complicates retention for mid-level finance leadership even as entry and mid-tier roles stay soft. Consider reviewing FP&A and controller-level compensation bands against national medians now, before accelerating national F&A hiring activity closes the local discount.
Looking ahead
Early indicator: Watch whether the national F&A Talent Shortage Index (now 77%, reversed from a 108% surplus in 2025) begins showing up in San Antonio advertised pay for controller and senior accountant roles over the next two reporting cycles.
Emerging pressure point: Information-sector job losses locally (down 6.6-7.7% year-over-year) may release finance-adjacent analytical talent into the local market; monitor whether this softens Financial Analyst or Credit Analyst advertised pay further.
Worth watching: Texas WARN filings are down 45% in affected workers year-over-year, but Conifer Health Solutions' 1,037-position cut this September shows large single-employer events can still move the local labor pool quickly.
Potential inflection point: National average hourly earnings growth decelerated to 3.0% year-over-year in September, below the 3.2% forecast — if this trend holds, Finance leaders may find Q4 merit budget assumptions set earlier in the year were too conservative.
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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