{"schema_version": 1, "id": "chattanooga-tn-ga-msa/finance/2026-10", "product": "Labor Market Pulse", "metro": {"geography_id": 124, "label": "Chattanooga, TN-GA MSA", "slug": "chattanooga-tn-ga-msa"}, "focus_area": {"key": "finance", "slug": "finance", "label": "Finance"}, "period": "2026-10", "public_after": "2026-10-01", "frozen_at": "2026-11-03T05:10:25.410837+00:00", "headline": "Chattanooga hiring cools while finance talent stays scarce and pricey.", "headline_summary": "UTC's forecast cut 2026 net job growth to just 1,100 even as metro unemployment held at 3.3% and advertised Financial Analyst pay jumped to $87,318, signaling Finance leaders face tighter searches despite a slowing broader market.", "key_indicators": [{"label": "Chattanooga MSA unemployment", "value": "3.3%", "context": "vs 4.1% national, down 0.3pp year-over-year"}, {"label": "UTC 2026 net job forecast", "value": "1,100 jobs", "context": "Down sharply from prior 2026 projections"}, {"label": "Tennessee financial activities jobs", "value": "-4,100", "context": "Year-over-year loss, statewide"}, {"label": "National CFO turnover rate", "value": "18.3%", "context": "Highest since pandemic, per Crist|Kolder"}], "takeaways": [{"headline": "Metro job growth has nearly stalled, but talent stays scarce.", "body": "UTC's 1,100 net job forecast for 2026 \u2014 concentrated in the first half \u2014 contrasts with a 3.3% unemployment rate that remains below the national 4.1%. Finance teams should not expect slower growth to ease hiring friction for scarce roles like controllers and analysts."}, {"headline": "Financial Analyst pay is accelerating well ahead of the local market.", "body": "Metro Financial Analyst advertised pay rose significantly to $87,318, closing ground on the $94,646 national figure even as broader metro job growth cooled. This divergence suggests Finance leaders are competing hard for analytical talent despite a soft overall hiring backdrop."}, {"headline": "Senior Accountant pay is slipping locally while the national rate holds.", "body": "Metro Senior Accountant pay fell to $73,840 (moderate decline) against a stable national median of $87,731 \u2014 a widening gap of roughly $14,000. Reviewing whether this reflects a shift in candidate mix, remote competition, or local softening in its own right is worth a closer look before resetting offer ranges."}, {"headline": "Manufacturing contraction may be releasing finance talent into the local pool.", "body": "Manufacturing shed about 2,200 metro jobs this year alongside Tennessee's statewide 1.7% manufacturing decline, which often carries plant-level finance and cost-accounting staff into the market. Watch whether this talent surfaces in controller and analyst applicant pools over the next two quarters."}], "local_conditions": "Chattanooga's labor market cooled sharply in the second half of 2026: UTC's fall forecast projects only 1,100 net new jobs for the year, driven almost entirely by first-half gains, with manufacturing down roughly 2,200 positions and professional and business services down about 1,200 amid tariff uncertainty and elevated borrowing costs. T-Mobile's October layoff of 200 workers and a metro unemployment rate of 3.3% suggest a market that remains tight on labor supply even as job creation stalls, a combination that keeps wage pressure elevated despite softer demand.", "implications": "Slowing job growth alongside a still-low 3.3% unemployment rate means Finance leaders face a market where backfilling finance and accounting roles takes longer and costs more, even as overall headcount growth plans soften \u2014 a dynamic that complicates both FY2027 budget assumptions and close-cycle staffing contingencies. Tennessee's financial activities sector lost 4,100 jobs over the year while CFO turnover nationally sits at an 18.3% high, pointing to churn risk concentrated at senior finance levels, with little evidence of broad-based retrenchment. Consider stress-testing headcount budgets against longer time-to-fill assumptions for controller and analyst-level roles, setting aside assumptions based on last year's hiring velocity.", "looking_ahead": [{"category": "Worth watching", "body": "UTC's downward revision to 1,100 net jobs for 2026 signals forecasters expect continued softness; a further downgrade at year-end would sharpen the case for conservative FY2027 headcount planning in finance functions."}, {"category": "Emerging pressure point", "body": "T-Mobile's 200-worker October layoff and ongoing manufacturing contraction could add finance-adjacent talent (FP&A, cost accounting) to the local candidate pool \u2014 worth tracking whether advertised pay for Financial Analyst and Controller roles softens in response."}, {"category": "Early indicator", "body": "National CFO turnover at 18.3% and an external-hire rate of 37.5% suggest Chattanooga employers should expect more contested searches for senior finance leadership; monitor local Controller postings for pay escalation as a leading signal."}, {"category": "Potential inflection point", "body": "One Chattanooga Works, the city's new initiative linking adults 25-54 to jobs and training, could expand the finance and accounting talent pipeline if it includes credentialing pathways \u2014 worth confirming scope before factoring into entry-level hiring plans."}], "roles": [{"role": "Controller", "data_scope": "metro", "metro_p25": 92309.75, "metro_p50": 118096.0, "metro_p75": 127859.0, "metro_trend_direction": "up", "metro_trend_magnitude": "moderate", "national_p50": 115420.0, "national_trend_direction": "up", "national_trend_magnitude": "moderate"}, {"role": "Senior Accountant", "data_scope": "metro", "metro_p25": 67127.0, "metro_p50": 73840.0, "metro_p75": 78920.0, "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": 66083.5, "metro_p50": 87317.6, "metro_p75": 94429.0, "metro_trend_direction": "up", "metro_trend_magnitude": "significant", "national_p50": 94646.0, "national_trend_direction": "stable", "national_trend_magnitude": "stable"}, {"role": "Billing Specialist", "data_scope": "metro", "metro_p25": 37415.0, "metro_p50": 42224.0, "metro_p75": 47151.0, "metro_trend_direction": "down", "metro_trend_magnitude": "moderate", "national_p50": 49000.0, "national_trend_direction": "stable", "national_trend_magnitude": "stable"}, {"role": "Tax Specialist", "data_scope": "metro", "metro_p25": 41726.0, "metro_p50": 66966.0, "metro_p75": 66966.0, "metro_trend_direction": "stable", "metro_trend_magnitude": "stable", "national_p50": 69556.0, "national_trend_direction": "up", "national_trend_magnitude": "significant"}, {"role": "Credit Analyst", "data_scope": "metro", "metro_p25": 59047.5, "metro_p50": 64593.0, "metro_p75": 67084.5, "metro_trend_direction": "stable", "metro_trend_magnitude": "stable", "national_p50": 71397.0, "national_trend_direction": "stable", "national_trend_magnitude": "stable"}, {"role": "FP&A Manager", "data_scope": "metro", "metro_p25": 83283.0, "metro_p50": 83283.0, "metro_p75": 83283.0, "metro_trend_direction": "stable", "metro_trend_magnitude": "stable", "national_p50": 130000.0, "national_trend_direction": "up", "national_trend_magnitude": "moderate"}], "industry_snapshot": [], "citations": [{"source_name": "UTC Center for Regional Economic Research", "source_url": null, "statement": "UTC fall forecast projects 1,100 net new jobs in Chattanooga metro for 2026"}, {"source_name": "News Channel 9", "source_url": null, "statement": "T-Mobile laid off 200 Chattanooga workers in October 2026"}, {"source_name": "Tennessee Department of Labor and Workforce Development", "source_url": null, "statement": "Chattanooga MSA unemployment rate was 3.3% in July 2026"}, {"source_name": "Tennessee Department of Labor and Workforce Development", "source_url": null, "statement": "Tennessee financial activities sector lost 4,100 jobs over the year"}, {"source_name": "Crist|Kolder Associates", "source_url": null, "statement": "CFO turnover projected at 18.3% in 2026, highest since the pandemic"}, {"source_name": "UTC Center for Regional Economic Research", "source_url": null, "statement": "Manufacturing lost about 2,200 jobs in the Chattanooga metro this year"}], "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": "November 2026", "files": {"html": "chattanooga-tn-ga-msa/finance/2026-10.html", "pdf": "chattanooga-tn-ga-msa/finance/2026-10.pdf"}, "published_at": "2026-11-03T08:19:50.431988+00:00", "report_html_url": "https://reports.wagescape.com/archive/v1/editions/chattanooga-tn-ga-msa/finance/2026-10.html", "report_pdf_url": "https://reports.wagescape.com/archive/v1/editions/chattanooga-tn-ga-msa/finance/2026-10.pdf"}