{"schema_version": 1, "id": "cheyenne-wy-msa/finance/2026-09", "product": "Labor Market Pulse", "metro": {"geography_id": 184, "label": "Cheyenne, WY MSA", "slug": "cheyenne-wy-msa"}, "focus_area": {"key": "finance", "slug": "finance", "label": "Finance"}, "period": "2026-09", "public_after": "2026-09-01", "frozen_at": "2026-10-09T13:26:31.003780+00:00", "headline": "Cheyenne finance pay climbs even as local job count shrinks.", "headline_summary": "Financial Analyst advertised pay jumped to a $106,206 metro median even as Laramie County shed 300 nonfarm jobs year-over-year and national financial activities employment fell by 129,000 since May 2025.", "key_indicators": [{"label": "Laramie County unemployment", "value": "2.6%", "context": "vs 3.0% Wyoming, 4.1% U.S. (July 2026)"}, {"label": "Laramie County nonfarm employment change", "value": "-300 jobs", "context": "First YoY decline since December 2022 (April 2026)"}, {"label": "National financial activities job losses", "value": "-129,000", "context": "Since May 2025, concentrated in insurance carriers"}, {"label": "National average hourly earnings growth", "value": "3.0% y/y", "context": "Below 3.2% expected, eases budget pressure"}], "takeaways": [{"headline": "Cheyenne's finance pay is rising faster than its labor supply is loosening.", "body": "Financial Analyst advertised pay is up significantly to a $106,206 metro median, well above the stable national figure, even as Laramie County unemployment sits near 2.6-2.7%. Tight supply paired with sharp local pay movement suggests budget assumptions built on national stability may understate Cheyenne-specific pressure."}, {"headline": "National sector contraction hasn't reached Cheyenne's advertised pay yet.", "body": "Financial activities shed 129,000 jobs nationally since May 2025 and Wyoming's financial activities sector fell 4.8% in Q1 2026, yet Controller, Credit Analyst, and Tax Specialist pay all moved up locally. Headcount reductions elsewhere may be masking a tighter-than-expected local specialist market rather than easing it."}, {"headline": "Senior Accountant pay diverges sharply from the national trend.", "body": "Metro median Senior Accountant pay rose significantly to $82,426 while the national figure held stable near $87,731 \u2014 a reversal of the usual metro discount to national pay. This may reflect genuine local scarcity in accounting talent as Wyoming's CPA shortage (Talent Shortage Index of 77%, up from a 2025 surplus) takes hold."}, {"headline": "Countywide job softness complicates headcount planning, not eases it.", "body": "Laramie County's 300-job year-over-year decline in nonfarm employment is the first since 2022, but it has coincided with rising unemployment from 4.4% to 4.5% in the same comparison period \u2014 a signal of softening demand, not available slack. Finance leaders should treat this as a caution on volume hiring rather than a sign of easing wage pressure."}], "local_conditions": "Cheyenne MSA unemployment has tightened to the 2.6\u20132.7% range through mid-2026, well below both state (3.0%) and national (4.1%) rates, even as Laramie County logged its first year-over-year nonfarm employment decline since December 2022 \u2014 a 300-job drop reported in April. Financial activities nationally shed jobs for a fifth straight month, and Wyoming's own financial activities sector contracted 4.8% in Q1 2026, suggesting Cheyenne's finance hiring is occurring against a backdrop of sector-level contraction even as advertised pay for finance roles locally continues to climb.", "implications": "Tight local labor supply combined with national finance-sector headcount contraction creates a split signal: budget for upward pay pressure on skilled finance roles (Financial Analyst and Credit Analyst both posting significant local gains) while recognizing that broader financial-activities job losses may expand the available candidate pool for support-level roles. Headcount cost planning should account for F&A compensation nearly doubling year-over-year nationally alongside nearly half of organizations expecting direct labor rate increases above 4% \u2014 a dynamic likely to outpace Cheyenne's historically modest wage trajectory. Consider reviewing whether current FP&A and Controller pay bands reflect the metro's significant upward movement in Financial Analyst and Credit Analyst advertised rates before the next hiring cycle locks in stale benchmarks.", "looking_ahead": [{"category": "Expected", "body": "Watch whether Wyoming's August flat unemployment (3.0%) and declining labor force participation (60.2%, 36th nationally) persist into Q4, which would tighten the specialist talent pool further for Controller and FP&A Manager searches."}, {"category": "Emerging pressure point", "body": "National financial activities job losses, concentrated in insurance carriers, have not yet shown up as a visible Cheyenne WARN signal given Wyoming's limited WARN disclosure requirements. Track whether displaced finance talent from larger regional employers begins surfacing in local applicant pools."}, {"category": "Potential inflection point", "body": "CPA and accountant shortage signals (2026 Talent Shortage Index of 77%) suggest Senior Accountant and Tax Specialist advertised pay may continue climbing through year-end budget cycles. Model pay band adjustments now rather than during Q1 2027 merit planning."}, {"category": "Worth watching", "body": "National average hourly earnings growth decelerated to 3.0% year-over-year in September, below the 3.2% expected \u2014 a potential signal that broad wage pressure is easing even as Cheyenne's finance-specific roles continue moving up. Divergence between broad and role-specific trends warrants monthly tracking."}], "roles": [{"role": "Controller", "data_scope": "metro", "metro_p25": 85675.5, "metro_p50": 117659.6, "metro_p75": 123000.0, "metro_trend_direction": "up", "metro_trend_magnitude": "moderate", "national_p50": 113754.0, "national_trend_direction": "up", "national_trend_magnitude": "moderate"}, {"role": "Senior Accountant", "data_scope": "metro", "metro_p25": 59558.0, "metro_p50": 82425.6, "metro_p75": 86875.0, "metro_trend_direction": "up", "metro_trend_magnitude": "significant", "national_p50": 87731.0, "national_trend_direction": "stable", "national_trend_magnitude": "stable"}, {"role": "Financial Analyst", "data_scope": "metro", "metro_p25": 87750.0, "metro_p50": 106205.6, "metro_p75": 113496.0, "metro_trend_direction": "up", "metro_trend_magnitude": "significant", "national_p50": 94782.0, "national_trend_direction": "stable", "national_trend_magnitude": "stable"}, {"role": "Billing Specialist", "data_scope": "metro", "metro_p25": 41065.0, "metro_p50": 46852.0, "metro_p75": 47639.0, "metro_trend_direction": "up", "metro_trend_magnitude": "significant", "national_p50": 49512.0, "national_trend_direction": "up", "national_trend_magnitude": "moderate"}, {"role": "Tax Specialist", "data_scope": "metro", "metro_p25": 47073.0, "metro_p50": 61267.8, "metro_p75": 62436.5, "metro_trend_direction": "up", "metro_trend_magnitude": "significant", "national_p50": 65842.4, "national_trend_direction": "up", "national_trend_magnitude": "significant"}, {"role": "Credit Analyst", "data_scope": "state_rollup", "metro_p25": 70349.25, "metro_p50": 75907.0, "metro_p75": 80658.0, "metro_trend_direction": "up", "metro_trend_magnitude": "significant", "national_p50": 71758.0, "national_trend_direction": "up", "national_trend_magnitude": "moderate"}, {"role": "FP&A Manager", "data_scope": "metro", "metro_p25": 105831.0, "metro_p50": 127260.0, "metro_p75": 139154.0, "metro_trend_direction": "up", "metro_trend_magnitude": "moderate", "national_p50": 128139.0, "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": "October 2026", "files": {"html": "cheyenne-wy-msa/finance/2026-09.html", "pdf": "cheyenne-wy-msa/finance/2026-09.pdf"}, "published_at": "2026-10-09T13:49:22.242500+00:00", "report_html_url": "https://reports.wagescape.com/archive/v1/editions/cheyenne-wy-msa/finance/2026-09.html", "report_pdf_url": "https://reports.wagescape.com/archive/v1/editions/cheyenne-wy-msa/finance/2026-09.pdf"}