{"schema_version": 1, "id": "champaign-urbana-il-msa/finance/2026-08", "product": "Labor Market Pulse", "metro": {"geography_id": 135, "label": "Champaign-Urbana, IL MSA", "slug": "champaign-urbana-il-msa"}, "focus_area": {"key": "finance", "slug": "finance", "label": "Finance"}, "period": "2026-08", "public_after": "2026-08-01", "frozen_at": "2026-10-09T16:24:39.971976+00:00", "headline": "Champaign's finance pay splits: analysts up, controllers down.", "headline_summary": "Champaign Financial Analyst pay climbed to $90,866 even as Controller pay fell to $92,500, a divergence set against Illinois financial activities payrolls shedding 15,800 jobs over the year.", "key_indicators": [{"label": "Metro unemployment rate", "value": "3.6%", "context": "July 2026, vs 4.7% Illinois, 4.1% national"}, {"label": "Illinois financial activities jobs", "value": "-15,800 YoY", "context": "Statewide annual loss, -1,700 in August alone"}, {"label": "Controller advertised pay, metro", "value": "$92,500", "context": "vs $112,500 national median, down significantly"}, {"label": "Illinois average weekly wage", "value": "$1,731", "context": "Up 4.1% YoY, ranks 9th among states"}], "takeaways": [{"headline": "Controller pay is falling locally while national demand holds firm.", "body": "Metro Controller advertised pay dropped significantly to $92,500, an 18% gap versus the stable $112,500 national median. This is consistent with Illinois financial activities losing 15,800 jobs over the year, and may signal fewer senior finance openings locally rather than a true market repricing."}, {"headline": "Financial Analyst demand is the metro's bright spot.", "body": "Advertised pay for Financial Analyst rose moderately to $90,866, now exceeding the $82,905 national median. Employers appear to be investing in analytical and FP&A-adjacent capacity even as senior finance roles soften, a pattern worth tracking against national data showing AI-skill premiums concentrated in technical and forecasting functions."}, {"headline": "Tax Specialist pay gap looks structural, not seasonal.", "body": "Metro Tax Specialist median sits at $39,520 against a national figure of $66,725 that itself rose significantly. Gap this wide suggests either a thin local candidate pool commanding lower posted rates or a role-scope mismatch \u2014 worth validating before using either figure for budget planning."}, {"headline": "Record employment coexists with a shrinking state payroll base.", "body": "Champaign hit record August employment while Illinois nonfarm payrolls fell 4,400 statewide and financial activities led sector losses. Local resilience tied to institutional employment may not extend to finance-specific headcount, making sector-level hiring plans more useful than headline employment figures for budget forecasting."}], "local_conditions": "Champaign posted record August employment even as Illinois financial activities payrolls fell 1,700 for the month and 15,800 year-over-year, a divergence that suggests the metro's university and institutional base is insulating it from statewide financial-sector contraction. Metro unemployment sat near 3.6% in July against a 4.7% Illinois rate, tightening local talent supply just as Controller advertised pay fell to $92,500 \u2014 a significant gap against the $112,500 national median that points to compressed local demand for senior finance leadership rather than broad-based softness.", "implications": "Divergence between a tight labor market and softening advertised pay for senior finance roles like Controller signals employers are recalibrating scope or level rather than competing aggressively on price \u2014 a pattern distinct from the national F&A hiring surge, where 74% of leaders plan headcount increases and 69% report offering above planned salary range. Financial Analyst pay moving up locally to $90,866, above the national median, suggests Champaign employers are concentrating competitive pressure on mid-level analytical talent rather than senior oversight roles, a signal relevant to how finance leaders sequence hiring across close, FP&A, and controllership functions. Consider reviewing whether Controller-level requisitions reflect genuine market softness or scope changes before benchmarking against the declining local median.", "looking_ahead": [{"category": "Worth watching", "body": "August metro unemployment data has not yet posted; July's 3.6% reading was among the lowest of 114 mid-sized metros nationally. A continued gap against the state's 4.7% rate would reinforce that Champaign hiring managers face tighter finance-talent supply than statewide postings suggest."}, {"category": "Emerging pressure point", "body": "Illinois financial activities payrolls have now declined for multiple consecutive periods, down 1,700 in August alone. Watch whether this shows up as increased finance-candidate availability in Champaign or whether the university-anchored labor pool remains largely separate from statewide financial-sector movement."}, {"category": "Potential inflection point", "body": "National F&A hiring managers report 61% find skilled candidates harder to source than a year ago, with AI-skills premiums reaching up to 56%. If that pressure reaches Champaign's FP&A and analyst postings, expect further upward movement in advertised Financial Analyst pay beyond this month's increase."}, {"category": "Early indicator", "body": "Illinois WARN filings are up 17% year-over-year statewide, with 91 notices affecting nearly 16,800 workers in 2026. None reported specific to Champaign this month, but a shift in filing activity would be a leading signal for finance-candidate supply heading into Q4 budget season."}], "roles": [{"role": "Controller", "data_scope": "metro", "metro_p25": 87500.0, "metro_p50": 92500.0, "metro_p75": 115814.0, "metro_trend_direction": "down", "metro_trend_magnitude": "significant", "national_p50": 112500.0, "national_trend_direction": "stable", "national_trend_magnitude": "stable"}, {"role": "Senior Accountant", "data_scope": "metro", "metro_p25": 79052.75, "metro_p50": 86393.0, "metro_p75": 92500.0, "metro_trend_direction": "down", "metro_trend_magnitude": "moderate", "national_p50": 87731.0, "national_trend_direction": "stable", "national_trend_magnitude": "stable"}, {"role": "Financial Analyst", "data_scope": "metro", "metro_p25": 66407.75, "metro_p50": 90866.0, "metro_p75": 131997.5, "metro_trend_direction": "up", "metro_trend_magnitude": "moderate", "national_p50": 82905.0, "national_trend_direction": "stable", "national_trend_magnitude": "stable"}, {"role": "Billing Specialist", "data_scope": "metro", "metro_p25": 40645.0, "metro_p50": 45760.0, "metro_p75": 46540.0, "metro_trend_direction": "up", "metro_trend_magnitude": "moderate", "national_p50": 49700.0, "national_trend_direction": "up", "national_trend_magnitude": "moderate"}, {"role": "Tax Specialist", "data_scope": "metro", "metro_p25": 33748.0, "metro_p50": 39520.0, "metro_p75": 69700.0, "metro_trend_direction": "down", "metro_trend_magnitude": "significant", "national_p50": 66725.0, "national_trend_direction": "up", "national_trend_magnitude": "significant"}, {"role": "Credit Analyst", "data_scope": "metro", "metro_p25": 52680.0, "metro_p50": 63762.0, "metro_p75": 65131.0, "metro_trend_direction": "stable", "metro_trend_magnitude": "stable", "national_p50": 72000.0, "national_trend_direction": "up", "national_trend_magnitude": "moderate"}, {"role": "FP&A Manager", "data_scope": "state_rollup", "metro_p25": 103747.25, "metro_p50": 127933.0, "metro_p75": 139874.0, "metro_trend_direction": "stable", "metro_trend_magnitude": "stable", "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": "champaign-urbana-il-msa/finance/2026-08.html", "pdf": "champaign-urbana-il-msa/finance/2026-08.pdf"}, "published_at": "2026-10-09T16:33:28.774362+00:00", "report_html_url": "https://reports.wagescape.com/archive/v1/editions/champaign-urbana-il-msa/finance/2026-08.html", "report_pdf_url": "https://reports.wagescape.com/archive/v1/editions/champaign-urbana-il-msa/finance/2026-08.pdf"}