Labor Market Pulse · Finance · September 2026
Finance Labor Market Report: Syracuse, NY MSA — September 2026
Syracuse Finance pay splits: leadership up, credit roles down.
Controller pay rose to $120,342 and FP&A Manager pay to $133,600 in Syracuse even as Credit Analyst pay fell to $72,023 and metro financial activities employment kept contracting.
Free archive edition. Published by WageScape as sent to subscribers; data as of September 2026.
Key indicators
- Metro unemployment rate: 4.1% — Up from 3.7% a year ago
- Metro job growth pace, 2026: 25/month avg — vs 350/month average in 2025
- Financial activities employment: -500 jobs — Through Nov 2025, metro-wide
- National average hourly earnings growth: 3.0% YoY — Below 3.2% forecast, easing budget pressure
Key takeaways
Syracuse Finance leadership pay is outrunning the national market.
Controller ($120,342) and FP&A Manager ($133,600) advertised pay both moved up significantly locally, outpacing stable national trends for these roles. Budget models built on national compensation data may understate true local cost-to-hire for leadership-tier Finance talent this cycle.
Credit Analyst pay is falling locally while rising nationally.
Metro Credit Analyst advertised pay dropped significantly to $72,023 even as the national figure climbed to $71,758, a reversal from typical metro premiums. This may reflect softening local demand for credit and lending functions tied to the broader financial activities job losses reported in the metro through late 2025.
Local Finance job losses mask a national hiring rebound.
Syracuse financial activities shed 500 jobs through November 2025 even as national F&A leaders report a Hiring Index of 134% and a shift from talent surplus to a 77% talent shortage index. Metro Finance functions appear structurally behind the national recovery curve, worth flagging in workforce planning conversations with corporate or national leadership.
Near-zero metro job growth is quietly tightening the talent pool.
Syracuse averaged just 25 net jobs monthly in 2026 versus 350 in 2025, yet unemployment only edged up to 4.1%, suggesting fewer people are entering the labor force rather than broad-based job creation slowing employer competition. Replacement hiring for departing Finance staff may take longer than headcount plans assume.
Median advertised pay by role — Syracuse, NY MSA
| Role | 25th percentile | Median advertised pay | 75th percentile | Metro trend | National median |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Controller | $78,036 | $120,342 | $140,000 | Significant increase | $113,754 |
| Senior Accountant | $71,946 | $82,857 | $85,224 | Significant increase | $87,731 |
| Financial Analyst | $69,292 | $85,000 | $94,792 | Moderate increase | $94,782 |
| Billing Specialist | $38,935 | $45,760 | $50,012 | Stable | $49,512 |
| Tax Specialist | $33,748 | $62,396 | $86,055 | Significant increase | $65,842 |
| Credit Analyst * | $59,986 | $72,023 | $85,935 | Significant decline | $71,758 |
| FP&A Manager | $113,189 | $133,600 | $139,000 | Significant increase | $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
Syracuse metro employment growth has nearly flatlined in 2026, averaging just 25 jobs added per month against 350 a month in 2025, while local unemployment ticked up to 4.1% from 3.7% a year ago. Financial activities lost 500 jobs through late 2025 even as Onondaga County posted 9,490 jobs of broader year-over-year growth, signaling a metro economy where Finance hiring is lagging the wider labor market rather than leading it.
What it means
Local Finance headcount contraction contrasts sharply with national F&A hiring intentions — 74% of finance and accounting leaders nationally plan to increase permanent headcount, a divergence that suggests Syracuse employers may be relying more heavily on automation and shared services to manage workload rather than adding staff. With Controller and FP&A Manager advertised pay rising significantly locally ($120,342 and $133,600 respectively) against flat-to-stable national figures, budget cycles and headcount cost models should assume upward pressure concentrated at the leadership tier rather than across the function broadly. Consider reviewing whether current headcount plans reflect this bifurcation — protecting senior Finance roles from pay compression while scrutinizing whether mid-level positions can be absorbed through process optimization.
Looking ahead
Worth watching: Piedmont Airlines' 88-worker WARN notice and FedEx's North Syracuse closure add to a thin but real local layoff signal. Watch whether any affected workers carry transferable finance, logistics-finance, or operations-accounting skills into the local candidate pool.
Emerging pressure point: Financial activities has now lost jobs locally for three straight months while professional and business services gained 1,300 — a divergence worth tracking before Q4 headcount and budget resets. If the pattern holds, expect continued softness in mid-level Finance requisitions even as adjacent functions expand.
Potential inflection point: Amazon's proposed Morgan Road warehouse expansion in Clay could pull logistics-adjacent finance and accounting talent (billing, credit, AP/AR) toward higher-volume distribution employers. Monitor whether Billing Specialist and Credit Analyst postings see upward pay pressure as a second-order effect.
Early indicator: National average hourly earnings growth cooled to 3.0% year-over-year in September, easing salary budget pressure mid-cycle. Confirm whether this national cooling is showing up in metro advertised pay data before finalizing fourth-quarter compensation adjustments.
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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