{"schema_version": 1, "id": "duluth-mn-wi-msa/finance/2026-10", "product": "Labor Market Pulse", "metro": {"geography_id": 224, "label": "Duluth, MN-WI MSA", "slug": "duluth-mn-wi-msa"}, "focus_area": {"key": "finance", "slug": "finance", "label": "Finance"}, "period": "2026-10", "public_after": "2026-10-01", "frozen_at": "2026-11-03T05:13:13.117794+00:00", "headline": "Duluth unemployment rises while finance pay keeps climbing.", "headline_summary": "Duluth metro unemployment hit 5.2% in August even as advertised pay for Billing Specialist ($55,120) and Tax Specialist ($66,506) roles rose sharply, exposing a split labor market finance leaders need to budget around separately.", "key_indicators": [{"label": "Duluth metro unemployment", "value": "5.2%", "context": "Up 0.6 pts YoY, above 4.1% national rate"}, {"label": "Duluth nonfarm employment", "value": "-0.9%", "context": "Year-over-year decline as of May 2026"}, {"label": "St. Louis County avg weekly wage", "value": "$1,257", "context": "Up 3.2% YoY, Q1 2026"}, {"label": "MN Financial Activities employment", "value": "-2.8%", "context": "YoY decline, first growth since April in Sept"}], "takeaways": [{"headline": "Duluth's labor market is loosening, but not where Finance hires.", "body": "Metro unemployment at 5.2% and a 0.9% year-over-year drop in nonfarm employment suggest more available labor overall, yet advertised pay for Financial Analyst and FP&A Manager roles is still rising locally. Budget for continued premium compensation in specialized finance roles even as general labor cost pressure eases."}, {"headline": "Controller pay is diverging from the national trend.", "body": "Metro Controller advertised pay sits at $90,000 and trending down, well below the $115,420 national median that is moving up. Organizations should evaluate whether this gap reflects local market softening or a lag in local postings catching up to national benchmarking pressure."}, {"headline": "Billing and Tax roles show the sharpest local pay acceleration.", "body": "Billing Specialist pay is up significantly to $55,120 and Tax Specialist pay is up significantly to $66,506, both outpacing national medians in percentage terms. This pattern is consistent with employers competing for transactional finance talent amid a thinning regional labor force participation rate."}, {"headline": "Real wage erosion statewide complicates retention math.", "body": "Minnesota wages have stayed flat year-over-year against 3.7% inflation, meaning finance staff retained at prior pay levels are losing purchasing power even without nominal cuts. Current conditions suggest reviewing retention risk for mid-level finance staff who may test the market despite softer headline unemployment."}], "local_conditions": "Duluth metro unemployment climbed to 5.2% in August, a half-point above the national rate and up 0.6 points year-over-year, as total nonfarm employment contracted 0.9% and St. Louis County shed jobs even as weekly wages rose 3.2% to $1,257. Structural softness in Financial Activities statewide \u2014 down 2.8% over the year per DEED \u2014 compounds a local labor pool already strained by manufacturing, retail and healthcare WARN filings across the region.", "implications": "Rising local unemployment alongside wage growth signals a bifurcated market: broad labor supply is loosening, but finance-specific talent remains scarce enough to push pay up in roles like Billing Specialist and Tax Specialist, both showing significant local gains. Headcount cost planning should account for this divergence \u2014 general administrative roles may see easing competition while finance and accounting specialists continue commanding premiums tied to a national CFO turnover rate of 18.3% and persistent skills shortages. Consider reviewing budget assumptions role-by-role, applying separate wage inflation figures across the finance function.", "looking_ahead": [{"category": "Worth watching", "body": "3M's October WARN filing and ongoing Revol Greens notice activity could release finance, accounting and operations talent into the regional pool over the next 60 days. Watch whether displaced workers with transferable finance skills appear in local applicant flow."}, {"category": "Emerging pressure point", "body": "Statewide Financial Activities employment has been contracting for a year but posted a small 0.2% gain in September, the first since April. A second consecutive month of growth would signal the sector may be stabilizing, with implications for how aggressively Duluth employers need to compete on pay."}, {"category": "Potential inflection point", "body": "National CFO turnover at 18.3% and a 37.5% external hire rate raise vacancy risk during the approaching year-end close and audit cycle. Finance leaders should assess succession depth for controller and FP&A leadership roles before Q4 close pressure peaks."}, {"category": "Early indicator", "body": "Minnesota's labor force participation rate has fallen to 66.7% amid cited immigration enforcement effects on workforce supply. Monitor whether this tightens the entry-level accounting and billing talent pipeline in Duluth over the next two quarters, a segment already showing significant local pay gains."}], "roles": [{"role": "Controller", "data_scope": "metro", "metro_p25": 77500.0, "metro_p50": 90000.0, "metro_p75": 112000.0, "metro_trend_direction": "down", "metro_trend_magnitude": "moderate", "national_p50": 115420.0, "national_trend_direction": "up", "national_trend_magnitude": "moderate"}, {"role": "Senior Accountant", "data_scope": "metro", "metro_p25": 72715.0, "metro_p50": 81822.0, "metro_p75": 83411.0, "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": 71492.75, "metro_p50": 80093.0, "metro_p75": 91618.25, "metro_trend_direction": "up", "metro_trend_magnitude": "moderate", "national_p50": 94646.0, "national_trend_direction": "stable", "national_trend_magnitude": "stable"}, {"role": "Billing Specialist", "data_scope": "metro", "metro_p25": 44920.0, "metro_p50": 55120.0, "metro_p75": 56023.0, "metro_trend_direction": "up", "metro_trend_magnitude": "significant", "national_p50": 49000.0, "national_trend_direction": "stable", "national_trend_magnitude": "stable"}, {"role": "Tax Specialist", "data_scope": "metro", "metro_p25": 40339.75, "metro_p50": 66506.0, "metro_p75": 70056.0, "metro_trend_direction": "up", "metro_trend_magnitude": "significant", "national_p50": 69556.0, "national_trend_direction": "up", "national_trend_magnitude": "significant"}, {"role": "Credit Analyst", "data_scope": "metro", "metro_p25": 72500.0, "metro_p50": 72500.0, "metro_p75": 72500.0, "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": "state_rollup", "metro_p25": 104362.75, "metro_p50": 130878.4, "metro_p75": 139250.0, "metro_trend_direction": "up", "metro_trend_magnitude": "moderate", "national_p50": 130000.0, "national_trend_direction": "up", "national_trend_magnitude": "moderate"}], "industry_snapshot": [], "citations": [{"source_name": "Bureau of Labor Statistics / USA Facts", "source_url": null, "statement": "Duluth MSA unemployment at 5.2% in August 2026, up 0.6 pts YoY"}, {"source_name": "Bureau of Labor Statistics", "source_url": null, "statement": "Duluth metro nonfarm employment down 0.9% YoY as of May 2026"}, {"source_name": "Bureau of Labor Statistics", "source_url": null, "statement": "St. Louis County average weekly wage $1,257, up 3.2% in Q1 2026"}, {"source_name": "Minnesota DEED", "source_url": null, "statement": "Minnesota Financial Activities employment down 2.8% year-over-year"}, {"source_name": "Crist|Kolder Associates", "source_url": null, "statement": "CFO turnover projected at 18.3% in 2026, highest since pandemic"}, {"source_name": "Minnesota DEED / BLS", "source_url": null, "statement": "Minnesota wages flat YoY against 3.7% inflation"}], "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": "duluth-mn-wi-msa/finance/2026-10.html", "pdf": "duluth-mn-wi-msa/finance/2026-10.pdf"}, "published_at": "2026-11-03T08:21:13.592388+00:00", "report_html_url": "https://reports.wagescape.com/archive/v1/editions/duluth-mn-wi-msa/finance/2026-10.html", "report_pdf_url": "https://reports.wagescape.com/archive/v1/editions/duluth-mn-wi-msa/finance/2026-10.pdf"}