Labor Market Pulse · Finance · August 2026
Finance Labor Market Report: Syracuse, NY MSA — August 2026
Syracuse finance pay splits: FP&A climbs as analyst roles slide.
FP&A Manager advertised pay rose to a metro median of $133,600 even as Syracuse job growth slowed to just 25 positions a month — the weakest pace since 2020 — while Financial Analyst and Credit Analyst pay both declined locally against rising national medians.
Free archive edition. Published by WageScape as sent to subscribers; data as of August 2026.
Key indicators
- Syracuse MSA unemployment: 4.1% — vs 3.7% year-ago, 4.1% national rate
- Syracuse monthly job growth (2026 avg): 25 jobs/month — vs 350/month in 2025 — weakest since 2020
- FP&A Manager advertised pay, metro: $133,600 — up significantly, vs $127,341 national
- NY financial activities employment growth: 0% — no growth over 2025 despite 8,200 gain in prior year
Key takeaways
Syracuse's job engine is nearly stalled, not just slowing.
Monthly job gains averaging 25 positions in 2026 — down from 350 in 2025 — mark the weakest growth since 2020 and rank among the worst nationally. Finance leaders building headcount plans on historical regional growth assumptions should recalibrate toward a near-flat labor market.
FP&A pay is pulling away from the rest of the finance stack.
FP&A Manager advertised pay rose to a metro median of $133,600, outpacing even the national figure and posting the sharpest gain among finance roles tracked locally. That divergence is consistent with national data showing 82% of F&A leaders paying premiums for AI-adjacent forecasting skills — a signal Syracuse employers appear to be following despite otherwise soft local wage momentum.
Credit Analyst and Financial Analyst pay are quietly eroding.
Both roles show significant local declines against stable-to-rising national medians — Credit Analyst down significantly locally while up moderately nationally. This gap may signal Syracuse employers are under less competitive pressure to bid up transactional analyst roles, even as national demand tightens.
Tax Specialist pay looks structurally underpriced against national trend.
Metro median sits at $47,407 versus a national median of $66,725 that is itself rising significantly — one of the widest local-national gaps in this month's data. Persistent underpricing here may create retention exposure once national wage pressure filters into regional recruiting.
Median advertised pay by role — Syracuse, NY MSA
| Role | 25th percentile | Median advertised pay | 75th percentile | Metro trend | National median |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Controller | $70,725 | $113,785 | $138,357 | Moderate increase | $112,500 |
| Senior Accountant | $71,138 | $82,094 | $82,896 | Significant increase | $87,731 |
| Financial Analyst | $67,325 | $75,000 | $85,000 | Moderate decline | $82,905 |
| Billing Specialist | $39,075 | $45,760 | $49,920 | Moderate decline | $49,700 |
| Tax Specialist | $33,748 | $47,407 | $51,408 | Moderate decline | $66,725 |
| Credit Analyst * | $62,606 | $76,375 | $89,228 | Significant decline | $72,000 |
| FP&A Manager | $113,189 | $133,600 | $139,000 | Significant increase | $127,341 |
* 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
Syracuse MSA unemployment held at 4.1% through mid-2026, up from 3.7% a year earlier, while job growth has slowed to an average of just 25 positions added monthly — the metro's weakest pace since 2020 and a sharp deceleration from 2025's 350-job monthly average. Growth remains concentrated in private education, health services, and professional/business services, with Micron Technology's continued build-out offering one of the few structural demand signals against an otherwise flat regional employment base.
What it means
Slowing headcount growth combined with a stable-but-elevated unemployment rate suggests Syracuse Finance functions face less external hiring pressure than national peers, but role-specific divergence — FP&A Manager and Controller pay rising while Financial Analyst and Credit Analyst advertised pay falls — points to a market rewarding forecasting and leadership capability over transactional analytical roles. Budget cycles built around flat overall labor costs may understate the premium now required to retain or backfill senior finance talent, particularly as AI-adjacent skill premiums reshape national compensation benchmarks faster than local postings reflect. Consider reviewing whether Syracuse-specific pay bands for FP&A and Controller roles have kept pace with the metro's upward movement, rather than defaulting to flatter regional wage assumptions.
Looking ahead
Worth watching: Syracuse's 2026 job growth pace (25/month) versus 2025's 350/month suggests the metro may be entering a genuine plateau rather than a temporary dip. Watch whether Q3 data shows any rebound tied to Micron-related supply chain hiring.
Emerging pressure point: New York State posted the largest payroll decline among all states in August (-23,500), driven heavily by New York City's financial activities sector showing no employment growth over 2025. Syracuse Finance leaders recruiting from downstate talent pools may see increased candidate flow if that structural contraction continues.
Early indicator: National F&A hiring managers report 90% difficulty filling skilled roles, with 69% offering pay above planned range for business-critical positions. Track whether Syracuse postings for Controller and FP&A roles begin mirroring that above-range offer behavior, given local pay for both is already trending up.
Potential inflection point: New York's minimum wage rises to $16/hour outside NYC-area counties on January 1, compressing the gap between entry-level finance support roles (Billing Specialist, Tax Specialist) and current advertised pay. Budget planning for entry-level finance headcount should account for this floor shift now.
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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