{"schema_version": 1, "id": "hi-nonmetropolitan-area/finance/2026-10", "product": "Labor Market Pulse", "metro": {"geography_id": 296, "label": "HI NONMETROPOLITAN AREA", "slug": "hi-nonmetropolitan-area"}, "focus_area": {"key": "finance", "slug": "finance", "label": "Finance"}, "period": "2026-10", "public_after": "2026-10-01", "frozen_at": "2026-11-03T05:22:47.581511+00:00", "headline": "Hawaii's non-metro counties diverge sharply on labor supply and pay.", "headline_summary": "Kauai's jobless rate spiked to 5.1% after Hurricane Lowell while FP&A Manager pay climbed to $136,947 locally, underscoring how uneven conditions have become across Hawaii's non-metro counties.", "key_indicators": [{"label": "Kauai unemployment spike", "value": "5.1%", "context": "Up from 2.5% in August after Hurricane Lowell"}, {"label": "Statewide labor force vs. employment growth", "value": "1.1% vs 0.4%", "context": "Year-over-year, signals loosening supply-demand balance"}, {"label": "FP&A Manager advertised pay", "value": "$136,947", "context": "Up significantly, vs $130,000 national median"}, {"label": "Government contract spending change", "value": "-25.4%", "context": "Year-over-year, first half 2026"}], "takeaways": [{"headline": "Labor supply is loosening, but unevenly across islands.", "body": "Statewide labor force growth of 1.1% outpaced employment growth of 0.4% year-over-year, yet Hawaii County's unemployment climbed to 3.5% while Kauai's spiked to 5.1% after Hurricane Lowell. Finance leaders sourcing talent across islands should expect meaningfully different candidate availability by county, not a uniform statewide easing."}, {"headline": "FP&A Manager pay signals finance is still a priority hire.", "body": "Metro median advertised pay for FP&A Manager sits at $136,947, up significantly and ahead of the $130,000 national median. Continued upward movement despite softening broader labor conditions points to sustained employer demand for forecasting and planning expertise, even as other roles cool."}, {"headline": "Controller and Financial Analyst pay are climbing faster locally than nationally.", "body": "Controller advertised pay rose to a metro median of $109,912 and Financial Analyst to $92,201, both tagged significant local increases versus moderate or stable national movement. Local wage pressure in these roles may outpace national benchmarking assumptions used in 2027 budget planning."}, {"headline": "Billing Specialist pay softness may reflect contracting retail and hospitality demand.", "body": "Metro median advertised pay for Billing Specialist fell significantly to $45,625 against a stable $49,000 national figure, consistent with WARN activity concentrated in food, hospitality and retail (993 and 640 affected workers respectively). Finance teams relying on this role for transactional back-office work may find a softer, more price-sensitive labor pool near-term."}], "local_conditions": "Hawaii's non-metropolitan counties show labor supply outpacing job creation \u2014 statewide labor force grew 1.1% year-over-year against just 0.4% employment growth \u2014 while Hurricane Lowell pushed Kauai County unemployment to 5.1% in September from 2.5% in August, a shock still working through the local labor pool. Across Hawaii, Maui and Kauai counties, wage levels diverge sharply (Maui+Kalawao averaging $1,250 weekly versus Hawaii County's $1,190), reflecting uneven industry mix and tourism exposure as government contract spending fell 25.4% year-over-year in H1 2026.", "implications": "Rising statewide unemployment alongside continued Financial Activities job gains (+200 in September) suggests finance talent in these non-metro counties may become marginally easier to source even as broader labor supply loosens, a rare easing signal inside an otherwise tight Hawaii labor market. Disaster-driven volatility in Kauai, combined with Hawaii County's structurally lower wages, complicates standardized pay bands for finance roles spanning multiple islands and warrants scrutiny of how close-cycle staffing and contractor use are allocated across counties. Consider reviewing county-level pay differentials for finance roles before 2027 budget cycles lock in assumptions built on statewide averages that mask island-level divergence.", "looking_ahead": [{"category": "Early indicator", "body": "Kauai's unemployment spike from Hurricane Lowell is a one-month shock; watch whether the November data (once federal shutdown delays clear) shows recovery or a lingering drag on labor force participation that affects hiring timelines for island-based finance support roles."}, {"category": "Emerging pressure point", "body": "Government contract spending fell 25.4% year-over-year in H1 2026, a trend worth tracking for any finance organizations supporting public-sector-adjacent revenue, since further contraction could compress headcount budgets tied to that work."}, {"category": "Worth watching", "body": "December 2 brings the first official BLS metro-level employment data covering October, which will clarify whether non-metro county unemployment trends (Hawaii County 3.5%, Maui 3.1%) are stabilizing or continuing to climb into year-end as analysts expect."}, {"category": "Potential inflection point", "body": "Scheduled TDI maximum benefit increases and the January 2028 minimum wage step to $18/hour are distant but compounding; finance teams building multi-year headcount cost models should begin stress-testing wage compression scenarios for lower-band roles like Billing Specialist and Tax Specialist now."}], "roles": [{"role": "Controller", "data_scope": "metro", "metro_p25": 89414.25, "metro_p50": 109912.0, "metro_p75": 122113.25, "metro_trend_direction": "up", "metro_trend_magnitude": "significant", "national_p50": 115420.0, "national_trend_direction": "up", "national_trend_magnitude": "moderate"}, {"role": "Senior Accountant", "data_scope": "metro", "metro_p25": 76237.5, "metro_p50": 87500.0, "metro_p75": 88878.25, "metro_trend_direction": "up", "metro_trend_magnitude": "moderate", "national_p50": 87731.0, "national_trend_direction": "stable", "national_trend_magnitude": "stable"}, {"role": "Financial Analyst", "data_scope": "metro", "metro_p25": 79730.0, "metro_p50": 92201.0, "metro_p75": 103066.0, "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": 40807.0, "metro_p50": 45625.0, "metro_p75": 52000.0, "metro_trend_direction": "down", "metro_trend_magnitude": "significant", "national_p50": 49000.0, "national_trend_direction": "stable", "national_trend_magnitude": "stable"}, {"role": "Tax Specialist", "data_scope": "metro", "metro_p25": 37440.0, "metro_p50": 46155.0, "metro_p75": 71000.0, "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": "state_rollup", "metro_p25": 49920.0, "metro_p50": 56958.8, "metro_p75": 65045.75, "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": 99255.75, "metro_p50": 136947.4, "metro_p75": 159813.75, "metro_trend_direction": "up", "metro_trend_magnitude": "significant", "national_p50": 130000.0, "national_trend_direction": "up", "national_trend_magnitude": "moderate"}], "industry_snapshot": [], "citations": [{"source_name": "The Garden Island", "source_url": null, "statement": "Kauai County unemployment rose to 5.1% from 2.5% after Hurricane Lowell"}, {"source_name": "Bureau of Labor Statistics / Hawaii Dept. of Labor", "source_url": null, "statement": "Statewide labor force grew 1.1% while employment grew 0.4% year-over-year"}, {"source_name": "Hawaii DBEDT Quarterly Statistical & Economic Report", "source_url": null, "statement": "Government contract spending fell 25.4% year-over-year in H1 2026"}, {"source_name": "Bureau of Labor Statistics", "source_url": null, "statement": "Financial Activities sector gained 200 jobs month-over-month in September"}, {"source_name": "Hawaii DBEDT Quarterly Statistical & Economic Report", "source_url": null, "statement": "Hawaii County and Maui+Kalawao average weekly wage figures for Q1 2026"}, {"source_name": "Bureau of Labor Statistics", "source_url": null, "statement": "October 2026 metro-level BLS employment data scheduled for December 2, 2026"}], "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": "hi-nonmetropolitan-area/finance/2026-10.html", "pdf": "hi-nonmetropolitan-area/finance/2026-10.pdf"}, "published_at": "2026-11-03T08:23:00.712786+00:00", "report_html_url": "https://reports.wagescape.com/archive/v1/editions/hi-nonmetropolitan-area/finance/2026-10.html", "report_pdf_url": "https://reports.wagescape.com/archive/v1/editions/hi-nonmetropolitan-area/finance/2026-10.pdf"}