Labor Market Pulse · Finance · August 2026
Finance Labor Market Report: St. George, UT MSA — August 2026
St. George finance pay splits: leadership up, analysts down.
Controller pay rose to a metro median of $106,040 and FP&A Manager to $121,949, even as Financial Analyst pay fell significantly to $90,498 against a stable $82,905 national median.
Free archive edition. Published by WageScape as sent to subscribers; data as of August 2026.
Key indicators
- Metro unemployment rate: 3.8% — July 2026, up 0.1 pt YoY
- Washington County employment growth: 2.8% — Largest gain among Utah's top 5 counties
- Average weekly wage, Washington County: $961 — vs $1,459 national (Q3 2025)
- Utah WARN notices in 2026: 13 notices / 1,684 workers — Down 11% from 2025 statewide
Key takeaways
Local pay for analyst roles is moving against the national grain.
Financial Analyst advertised pay fell significantly in the metro while national medians held stable near $82,905 — a reversal that flattens the usual premium these roles command and may reflect softer local demand rather than a national trend. Budget models that assume metro pay tracks national direction warrant a second look.
Controller and FP&A Manager pay are pulling away from the pack.
Both roles posted significant local increases — Controller to $106,040 and FP&A Manager to $121,949 — while most other finance roles in the metro softened or held flat. Concentration of upward pressure at the leadership tier suggests employers are protecting senior finance talent even while trimming elsewhere.
Washington County's job growth outpaces its wage growth.
A 2.8% employment gain led the state's largest counties, yet average weekly wages sit roughly 34% below the national figure. Headcount expansion without matching wage acceleration points to lower-cost hiring or a mix shift toward entry-level and support roles rather than broad wage inflation.
Statewide AI premiums are a budgeting variable Southern Utah can't ignore.
Utah F&A leaders report paying 6-15% premiums for technical accounting and AI-adjacent skills, consistent with national patterns, even as St. George's information sector contracted alongside the state's 2,300-job information-sector loss. Finance roles requiring automation or forecasting-tool fluency may command premiums locally that generic role benchmarks won't capture.
Median advertised pay by role — St. George, UT MSA
| Role | 25th percentile | Median advertised pay | 75th percentile | Metro trend | National median |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Controller | $76,892 | $106,040 | $113,317 | Significant increase | $112,500 |
| Senior Accountant | $73,674 | $81,353 | $82,707 | Moderate decline | $87,731 |
| Financial Analyst | $72,150 | $90,498 | $102,741 | Significant decline | $82,905 |
| Billing Specialist | $36,223 | $41,184 | $49,920 | Stable | $49,700 |
| Tax Specialist | $50,139 | $69,890 | $70,660 | Moderate increase | $66,725 |
| Credit Analyst | $53,401 | $65,314 | $70,240 | Significant decline | $72,000 |
| FP&A Manager | $108,369 | $121,949 | $123,063 | Significant increase | $127,341 |
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
Washington County's economy continues to outpace state peers on job creation — a 2.8% over-the-year employment gain, the largest among Utah's five biggest counties — even as the metro unemployment rate ticked up to 3.8% in July, up 0.1 point year-over-year, signaling a labor market that is expanding in headcount but tightening in candidate availability. Tech Ridge's continued build-out and anchor employers like Vasion are pulling skilled finance and technology talent into a wage structure still running well below national levels, with average hourly wages of $26.89 versus $33.54 nationally.
What it means
Wage compression against national benchmarks — Washington County's $961 weekly wage sits far below the $1,459 national figure — gives St. George employers room to compete on total rewards without matching coastal or Wasatch Front pay scales, but only if compensation committees are benchmarking against current local advertised rates rather than legacy pay bands. Finance leaders building FY2027 headcount budgets should weigh that Financial Analyst and Credit Analyst advertised pay have both moved down significantly locally even as national rates for these roles rose, a divergence that complicates standard cost-of-labor assumptions built into annual planning models. Consider reviewing role-level advertised pay trends against national movement before finalizing merit and market-adjustment budgets for FP&A and analyst-track positions.
Looking ahead
Worth watching: Metro unemployment edged up to 3.8% in July after a summer 2025 low of 3.4%. Track whether this continues rising into fall, which would signal loosening candidate supply that could ease recruiting pressure on hard-to-fill finance roles.
Emerging pressure point: Financial Analyst and Credit Analyst advertised pay both declined significantly locally while national rates rose. Watch whether this gap closes or widens over Q4, as a widening gap could pressure retention among analysts benchmarking against national postings.
Early indicator: Tech Ridge's continued expansion, including new luxury residential development, may draw a wave of tech and finance-adjacent talent into the metro over the next two quarters. Monitor whether this expands the local candidate pool for FP&A and analytics-heavy finance roles or simply raises competition for the same limited talent.
Potential inflection point: Utah's information sector lost 2,300 jobs year-over-year even as professional and business services gained 8,500. If that pattern extends to St. George's fintech and automation-adjacent employers, expect softer competition for technical finance hires but continued tightness for core accounting and controllership talent.
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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