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Labor Market Pulse
Green Bay, WI Metro Edition
Focus: FINANCE
Green Bay Controller pay surges while analyst roles soften.
3.20%
Green Bay MSA unemployment rate
Most recent metro reading, historically low
$101,603
Controller advertised pay (metro)
Up significantly; national median $112,500 stable
$73,416
Financial Analyst advertised pay (metro)
Down moderately vs. stable national $82,905
3,042,900 jobs (July 2026)
Wisconsin statewide payrolls
Down from 3,051,000 peak in Nov. 2024
This Month's Takeaways
Controller pay is pulling away from the rest of the finance function.
Metro Controller advertised pay rose significantly to $101,603 while Senior Accountant and FP&A Manager pay held stable, signaling employers are concentrating scarce budget on senior financial leadership roles rather than broadening increases across the department. Budget cycle planning should treat Controller-level compensation as a distinct, faster-moving line item.
Financial Analyst and Credit Analyst pay softening locally bucks the national trend.
Metro Financial Analyst pay is down moderately to $73,416 and Credit Analyst down moderately to $59,249, even as national medians for both roles are stable or rising. This divergence may suggest Green Bay employers are finding adequate local supply for mid-level analytical roles even as senior and specialist roles tighten — worth testing before assuming national wage pressure applies uniformly.
Tax Specialist and Billing Specialist pay signal where real scarcity lives.
Both roles posted significant advertised pay increases locally ($65,274 and $47,840 respectively), tracking national gains in the same roles and consistent with 90% of finance leaders nationally reporting difficulty filling skilled positions. These are the roles most likely to blow through planned salary ranges during the next hiring cycle.
Wisconsin's job losses since January 2025 complicate headcount cost forecasting.
State employment has declined from a November 2024 peak of 3,051,000 jobs even as August's seasonally adjusted unemployment rate improved to 3.2%, a combination that suggests some of the state's apparent tightness reflects labor force exits rather than genuine demand strength. Controllers building multi-year headcount cost models should stress-test against both a continued-tightness and a labor-force-recovery scenario.
Local Labor Conditions
Green Bay's metro unemployment sits at historically tight levels — 3.20% as of the most recent MSA reading — with roughly 18,500 job postings live in Brown County against a base of 7,700 employers, underscoring that labor supply, not demand, remains the binding constraint on hiring plans. State-level context reinforces the pressure: Wisconsin unemployment fell to 3.2% in August even as the state has quietly shed jobs since January 2025, a divergence that suggests headline tightness may partly reflect workforce exits rather than pure hiring strength.
Leadership & Talent Implications
Tight metro labor supply is colliding with Finance-specific hiring urgency — nationally, 74% of F&A leaders plan permanent headcount increases while 61% report skilled candidates harder to find than a year ago, a dynamic Green Bay's thin candidate pool will likely amplify. With Controller pay up significantly locally ($101,603 median) while Financial Analyst and Credit Analyst advertised pay have moved down, budget cycles may need role-by-role rather than department-wide compensation assumptions. Consider reviewing headcount cost forecasts at the individual-role level rather than applying a blanket wage-inflation assumption across the finance function.
