{"schema_version": 1, "id": "cedar-rapids-ia-msa/finance/2026-08", "product": "Labor Market Pulse", "metro": {"geography_id": 126, "label": "Cedar Rapids, IA MSA", "slug": "cedar-rapids-ia-msa"}, "focus_area": {"key": "finance", "slug": "finance", "label": "Finance"}, "period": "2026-08", "public_after": "2026-08-01", "frozen_at": "2026-10-09T16:24:35.287021+00:00", "headline": "Cedar Rapids finance talent tightens as Linn County jobs shrink.", "headline_summary": "Linn County employment fell 1.6% year-over-year even as local FP&A Manager pay hit $132,518, outpacing the $127,341 national median, signaling a market bidding up scarce analytical talent.", "key_indicators": [{"label": "Linn County employment change", "value": "-1.6%", "context": "Largest decline among Iowa's four largest counties"}, {"label": "Iowa unemployment rate", "value": "3.2%", "context": "Steady 4th month, down from 3.5% a year ago"}, {"label": "FP&A Manager advertised pay, metro", "value": "$132,518", "context": "vs $127,341 national median"}, {"label": "Cedar Rapids MSA unemployment (latest available)", "value": "3.9%", "context": "December 2025 figure; August data due Sept 22"}], "takeaways": [{"headline": "FP&A and analyst roles are pricing above national norms locally.", "body": "FP&A Manager advertised pay sits at $132,518 in Cedar Rapids versus $127,341 nationally, and Financial Analyst pay at $84,966 versus $82,905 nationally. This inversion suggests employers are competing hardest for forecasting and planning talent precisely where Linn County's workforce contraction bites deepest."}, {"headline": "Retirement-driven attrition is quietly reshaping the local talent pipeline.", "body": "Iowa's employed population fell 7,500 year-over-year largely due to retirements, and Linn County posted the steepest county-level employment decline in the state. Finance functions relying on experienced senior accountants or controllers locally may be recruiting from a permanently smaller pool, not a cyclical dip."}, {"headline": "Senior Accountant pay is flat while everything around it moves.", "body": "Senior Accountant advertised pay held stable at $79,174 locally against a national median of $87,731, a gap that has persisted while Financial Analyst and Tax Specialist pay both moved up significantly. Flat pay in a tightening market may indicate this role is being backfilled through internal promotion rather than external hiring, worth confirming before assuming market competitiveness."}, {"headline": "Lower UI tax rates offer modest payroll relief heading into 2027.", "body": "Iowa's UI Trust Fund reached $2.1 billion, qualifying employers for the lowest possible tax rates in 2027. That relief is small against the wage pressure building in analyst and FP&A roles, but it is a rare cost tailwind worth factoring into total labor cost projections."}], "local_conditions": "Linn County's labor market shows a sharper divergence than the state trend suggests: employment fell 1.6% year-over-year even as Iowa's unemployment rate held at 3.2% for a fourth straight month, driven by retirement-linked labor force exits and continued softness in trade and transportation. Wage growth in Linn County, at 3.5% year-over-year in Q3 2025, has outpaced the statewide average in prior periods but now trails Scott and Johnson counties, pointing to a metro economy tightening on supply even as broader demand growth moderates.", "implications": "Finance leaders building FY2027 headcount budgets face a Cedar Rapids labor pool that is shrinking through attrition rather than layoffs, which limits the near-term candidate supply for close-cycle and FP&A roles even as national F&A hiring managers report 61% greater difficulty filling skilled positions than a year ago. Advertised pay for Financial Analyst ($84,966) and FP&A Manager ($132,518) roles locally now exceeds national medians, a signal that Cedar Rapids employers are bidding up scarce forecasting and analytical talent rather than seeing broad-based inflation across finance roles. Current conditions suggest reviewing which finance roles in the org chart depend on local supply versus remote-eligible talent pools before locking in FY2027 comp ranges.", "looking_ahead": [{"category": "Expected", "body": "Iowa Workforce Development posts Cedar Rapids MSA-specific August 2026 unemployment and payroll figures on September 22. Finance leaders should watch whether the metro's December 2025 rate of 3.9% has moved meaningfully, given Linn County's divergent employment trend."}, {"category": "Emerging pressure point", "body": "Manufacturing added 1,300 jobs statewide in August while transportation and trade shed 5,200 over the year, a bifurcation that could show up in Cedar Rapids given its manufacturing base. Watch whether local finance and accounting hiring tied to manufacturing operations tracks that gain."}, {"category": "Worth watching", "body": "National F&A hiring data shows 82% of leaders paying AI-skill premiums, with technical accounting and SEC roles commanding 6-15% premiums. Cedar Rapids employers competing for scarce analyst and FP&A talent may begin importing this premium structure locally within the next two quarters."}, {"category": "Potential inflection point", "body": "Linn County's 1.6% year-over-year employment decline is the largest among Iowa's major counties; a second consecutive quarter of contraction would signal a structural rather than transitional labor supply constraint for local finance hiring."}], "roles": [{"role": "Controller", "data_scope": "metro", "metro_p25": 73280.0, "metro_p50": 111589.0, "metro_p75": 115444.0, "metro_trend_direction": "up", "metro_trend_magnitude": "significant", "national_p50": 112500.0, "national_trend_direction": "stable", "national_trend_magnitude": "stable"}, {"role": "Senior Accountant", "data_scope": "metro", "metro_p25": 71004.0, "metro_p50": 79174.0, "metro_p75": 82997.0, "metro_trend_direction": "stable", "metro_trend_magnitude": "stable", "national_p50": 87731.0, "national_trend_direction": "stable", "national_trend_magnitude": "stable"}, {"role": "Financial Analyst", "data_scope": "metro", "metro_p25": 68037.0, "metro_p50": 84965.6, "metro_p75": 88451.0, "metro_trend_direction": "up", "metro_trend_magnitude": "significant", "national_p50": 82905.0, "national_trend_direction": "stable", "national_trend_magnitude": "stable"}, {"role": "Billing Specialist", "data_scope": "metro", "metro_p25": 40257.75, "metro_p50": 47161.0, "metro_p75": 53040.0, "metro_trend_direction": "up", "metro_trend_magnitude": "significant", "national_p50": 49700.0, "national_trend_direction": "up", "national_trend_magnitude": "moderate"}, {"role": "Tax Specialist", "data_scope": "metro", "metro_p25": 43441.0, "metro_p50": 65620.0, "metro_p75": 65620.0, "metro_trend_direction": "up", "metro_trend_magnitude": "significant", "national_p50": 66725.0, "national_trend_direction": "up", "national_trend_magnitude": "significant"}, {"role": "Credit Analyst", "data_scope": "state_rollup", "metro_p25": 55244.0, "metro_p50": 63135.0, "metro_p75": 63526.0, "metro_trend_direction": "up", "metro_trend_magnitude": "moderate", "national_p50": 72000.0, "national_trend_direction": "up", "national_trend_magnitude": "moderate"}, {"role": "FP&A Manager", "data_scope": "state_rollup", "metro_p25": 104638.0, "metro_p50": 132518.0, "metro_p75": 136259.0, "metro_trend_direction": "up", "metro_trend_magnitude": "significant", "national_p50": 127341.0, "national_trend_direction": "stable", "national_trend_magnitude": "stable"}], "industry_snapshot": [], "citations": [], "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.", "edition_label": "September 2026", "files": {"html": "cedar-rapids-ia-msa/finance/2026-08.html", "pdf": "cedar-rapids-ia-msa/finance/2026-08.pdf"}, "published_at": "2026-10-09T16:33:28.093236+00:00", "report_html_url": "https://reports.wagescape.com/archive/v1/editions/cedar-rapids-ia-msa/finance/2026-08.html", "report_pdf_url": "https://reports.wagescape.com/archive/v1/editions/cedar-rapids-ia-msa/finance/2026-08.pdf"}