Labor Market Pulse · Finance · August 2026
Finance Labor Market Report: Utica-Rome, NY MSA — August 2026
Utica Finance headcount flat, but talent bench is thinning fast.
Utica-Rome payrolls held near 122,700 even as financial activities lost jobs and unemployment rose to 4.3%, while Tax Specialist advertised pay ($76,872) climbed well above the national median.
Free archive edition. Published by WageScape as sent to subscribers; data as of August 2026.
Key indicators
- Metro unemployment rate: 4.3% — Up from 4.2% a year ago (Aug 2025)
- Metro non-farm payrolls: 122,700 — Unchanged year-over-year
- Financial activities jobs (metro): -100 — Year-over-year decline, NY DOL
- F&A leaders raising offers above plan: 69% — National, for business-critical roles
Key takeaways
Financial activities headcount is shrinking locally, not just stalling.
Utica-Rome lost 100 financial activities jobs over the past year while statewide financial services employment barely moved for two years. This looks less like seasonal softness and more like the structural cost reduction playing out in corporate banking statewide reaching the regional level.
Tax Specialist pay is outrunning the national market.
Metro advertised pay for Tax Specialist ($76,872) is up significantly and now sits well above the national median ($66,725), a wider gap than typical for this role. That premium is consistent with thinning local supply for technical tax and accounting expertise rather than a broad regional wage trend.
FP&A Manager pay strength signals where Finance is protecting headcount.
FP&A Manager advertised pay rose to $130,303 locally, outpacing a flat national median. Combined with national data showing 74% of F&A leaders planning permanent headcount growth, this suggests forecasting and planning roles are being prioritized even as adjacent Finance functions contract.
Financial Analyst pay softening bucks the metro's broader wage trend.
Financial Analyst advertised pay fell significantly to $82,319, the lone decline among tracked Finance roles this month. Confirm whether this reflects a shift in the mix of postings — more junior analyst reqs, for instance — rather than genuine downward pressure on analyst compensation.
Median advertised pay by role — Utica-Rome, NY MSA
| Role | 25th percentile | Median advertised pay | 75th percentile | Metro trend | National median |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Controller | $52,624 | $106,841 | $120,000 | Significant increase | $112,500 |
| Senior Accountant | $82,649 | $87,731 | $93,550 | Stable | $87,731 |
| Financial Analyst | $69,890 | $82,319 | $93,947 | Significant decline | $82,905 |
| Billing Specialist | $39,688 | $50,022 | $60,320 | Significant increase | $49,700 |
| Tax Specialist | $54,079 | $76,872 | $93,666 | Significant increase | $66,725 |
| Credit Analyst | $66,376 | $87,173 | $100,118 | Significant increase | $72,000 |
| FP&A Manager | $106,483 | $130,303 | $135,551 | 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
Utica-Rome's unemployment rate ticked up to 4.3% in August, and flat non-farm payrolls at 122,700 for the year mask sectoral churn — professional and business services shed 300 jobs and financial activities lost another 100, even as healthcare and hospitality expanded. Structural pressure on regional banking and corporate finance functions, consistent with statewide trends where Financial Activities employment stalled through 2025, appears to be compounding a Finance labor pool already thinned by low regional population growth.
What it means
Losses in professional and business services and financial activities locally, layered on New York's broader 'low hire, low fire' financial sector dynamic, suggest Finance leaders in Utica-Rome are managing headcount in a market with fewer replacement candidates rather than fewer open roles — a dynamic that raises the cost and risk of losing specialized talent during close cycles or audit season. Advertised pay for Tax Specialist (+significant, $76,872 metro) and Credit Analyst (+significant, $87,173 metro) is rising faster locally than nationally, which may indicate employers are competing harder for a shrinking specialized bench rather than expanding overall Finance capacity. Consider reviewing succession and cross-training plans for technical accounting and tax roles now, before a departure forces a rushed, above-market hire.
Looking ahead
Worth watching: Watch whether the 300-job decline in professional and business services concentrates further in Finance-adjacent functions or proves a one-month statistical noise given the metro's small payroll base.
Emerging pressure point: New York's own WARN Act requires 90 days' notice; track regional filings for any Finance or banking-sector notices that could add specialized talent to the Utica-Rome candidate pool over Q4.
Potential inflection point: National F&A hiring data shows 69% of leaders now offering salaries above planned range for business-critical roles; monitor whether that pattern reaches Utica-Rome employers competing against Albany and Syracuse for the same technical talent.
Early indicator: Minimum wage rises to $16/hour outside NYC metro areas on January 1; model compression effects on entry-level Billing Specialist and Senior Accountant pay bands ahead of the increase.
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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