Brought to you by:
Powered by wagescape.com
Labor Market Pulse
Colorado Springs, CO Metro Edition
Focus: FINANCE
Colorado Springs Financial Analyst pay outruns the nation by 31%.
4.1%
El Paso County unemployment
Up from 3.8% in May 2026
$108,375
Financial Analyst advertised pay, metro
vs $82,905 national median
65.3%
Colorado labor force participation
10-year low, down from 65.5% in July
$34.03
Colorado Springs average hourly wage
vs $33.54 national average
This Month's Takeaways
Financial Analyst pay has decoupled from the national market.
Metro median advertised pay of $108,375 sits nearly 31% above the national figure of $82,905, a gap too large to attribute to cost of living alone. Compensation bands anchored to national data risk understating what it now takes to fill this role locally.
Controller pay is softening while everything else moves up.
Metro Controller median has drifted down to $115,000 even as Senior Accountant, Tax Specialist, and Credit Analyst pay all rose. This divergence may reflect a smaller, more competitive pool of Controller openings rather than reduced demand for the role itself — worth confirming before assuming the market has cooled.
Labor force participation decline is a supply story, not a demand story.
Colorado's participation rate fell to a 10-year low of 65.3% in August, even as job growth statewide turned negative. Finance leaders filling technical accounting or FP&A roles should expect longer time-to-fill regardless of budgeted headcount, since the constraint is candidates available, not roles open.
Aerospace-adjacent wage pressure is bleeding into finance hiring.
Defense contractors and an expanding tech sector compete directly for the analytical and technical talent finance teams also need, particularly for FP&A and analyst-level roles. Budget cycles built on flat comp assumptions for these roles may understate real hiring cost in this metro specifically.
Local Labor Conditions
El Paso County's unemployment rate held at 4.1% in August, tracking the state's climb to 4% and consistent with a labor market that has tightened modestly since spring, while Colorado's labor force participation rate fell to a 10-year low of 65.3% — a supply constraint that compounds hiring difficulty even as headline job growth softens. Aerospace and defense contracting, alongside a fast-growing tech sector (Colorado Springs ranks No. 2 nationally for tech talent growth), continue to anchor wage pressure in a metro where average hourly wages already exceed the national figure by roughly $0.50.
Leadership & Talent Implications
Financial Analyst pay in Colorado Springs has moved up significantly (metro median $108,375 versus $82,905 nationally), a gap wide enough to signal that FP&A and forecasting talent is being bid up locally, likely reflecting defense-sector and tech-adjacent demand competing for the same analytical skill set Finance departments need for close automation and modeling. Statewide financial activities added jobs even as overall Colorado payrolls contracted in August, suggesting finance functions are being asked to do more with headcount that is harder to source and costlier to retain. Consider reviewing whether current FP&A and analyst compensation bands reflect this local premium before budget cycles lock in assumptions built on national benchmarks.
