{"schema_version": 1, "id": "mt-nonmetropolitan-area/finance/2026-09", "product": "Labor Market Pulse", "metro": {"geography_id": 334, "label": "MT NONMETROPOLITAN AREA", "slug": "mt-nonmetropolitan-area"}, "focus_area": {"key": "finance", "slug": "finance", "label": "Finance"}, "period": "2026-09", "public_after": "2026-09-01", "frozen_at": "2026-10-09T13:28:31.350893+00:00", "headline": "Montana finance pay climbs as sector headcount keeps shrinking.", "headline_summary": "Montana wages grew 5.4% in 2025 versus 3.4% nationally, even as financial activities employment contracted and FP&A Manager advertised pay slipped to $122,550 locally.", "key_indicators": [{"label": "Montana wage growth, 2025", "value": "5.4%", "context": "vs 3.4% national average, ranked #1 nationally"}, {"label": "Montana unemployment, August", "value": "3.2%", "context": "vs 4.1% national rate"}, {"label": "County unemployment spread", "value": "1.4% to 10.1%", "context": "Prairie County vs Crow Reservation area"}, {"label": "National financial activities jobs", "value": "-129,000", "context": "Since May 2025, insurance-led decline"}], "takeaways": [{"headline": "Montana wage growth is outrunning the national rate again.", "body": "Statewide wages rose 5.4% in 2025 against 3.4% nationally, and Controller and Tax Specialist advertised pay in-metro are both up significantly this month. Budget models anchored to national ECI figures risk underestimating actual cost-to-hire for finance roles in this labor market."}, {"headline": "Financial activities headcount is shrinking even as pay climbs.", "body": "Financial activities employment fell statewide in 2024-2025 on higher borrowing costs and softer home sales, yet advertised pay for Controller and Credit Analyst roles moved up significantly. Fewer open roles paired with rising pay per role suggests employers are concentrating budget on fewer, higher-value hires rather than broad headcount expansion."}, {"headline": "FP&A Manager pay softened while most finance roles rose.", "body": "FP&A Manager advertised pay in the metro is down moderately this month, a notable outlier against gains in Controller, Tax Specialist, and Credit Analyst postings. This divergence may reflect employers substituting automation and shared-services models for mid-level planning headcount, consistent with national reporting on F&A automation offsetting hiring."}, {"headline": "Tribal-area unemployment gaps complicate statewide benchmarking.", "body": "Unemployment ranges from 1.4% in Prairie County to over 10% on the Crow and Rocky Boy's reservations, far wider spread than the 3.2% statewide figure implies. Finance leaders sourcing talent across nonmetro Montana should treat county-level labor availability as the operative unit, not the statewide average."}], "local_conditions": "Montana nonmetro counties show 3.2% statewide unemployment against sharp internal variance, from Prairie County's 1.4% to double-digit rates on tribal lands like the Crow Reservation at 10.1%, reflecting a labor market that is tight overall but structurally uneven. Financial activities employment statewide fell in 2024-2025 on higher borrowing costs and a slower home sales market, even as healthcare and administrative services absorb most new job growth, leaving finance hiring pipelines thinner than headline unemployment suggests.", "implications": "Flat-to-declining financial activities headcount alongside a record-high statewide labor force points to a selective talent shortage rather than broad slack \u2014 Montana's 5.4% wage growth in 2025 (versus 3.4% nationally) means budget cycles built on national compensation trend assumptions will understate local pressure. Controller and Tax Specialist advertised pay in the metro are both up significantly, consistent with replacement-demand projections of 6,700+ annual openings in financial and professional services statewide, a sector DLI identifies as Montana's leading economic driver. Consider reviewing headcount cost models for close-cycle and tax-function roles specifically, rather than applying a flat compensation inflation assumption across all finance titles.", "looking_ahead": [{"category": "Emerging pressure point", "body": "Financial activities have shed jobs nationally for five straight months through September, with insurance carriers hit hardest. Watch whether this national contraction reaches Montana's financial and professional services sector, which already softened in 2024-2025 on borrowing-cost pressure."}, {"category": "Worth watching", "body": "Eastern Montana's 6.9% mining decline, tied to Sibanye-Stillwater layoffs near Billings, could release adjacent finance and accounting talent into the regional candidate pool over the next quarter."}, {"category": "Potential inflection point", "body": "National F&A hiring intentions show 74% of finance leaders planning to add permanent headcount despite sector job losses \u2014 a split signal. Montana employers may follow this pattern, prioritizing select hires (tax, credit, controller-level) over broad headcount restoration."}, {"category": "Expected", "body": "Montana's minimum wage rose to $10.85 in January and adjusts annually with CPI, a modest but compounding cost factor for entry-level finance support roles like Billing Specialist heading into 2027 budget planning."}], "roles": [{"role": "Controller", "data_scope": "metro", "metro_p25": 49071.0, "metro_p50": 97012.4, "metro_p75": 111270.25, "metro_trend_direction": "up", "metro_trend_magnitude": "significant", "national_p50": 113754.0, "national_trend_direction": "up", "national_trend_magnitude": "moderate"}, {"role": "Senior Accountant", "data_scope": "metro", "metro_p25": 80000.0, "metro_p50": 87731.0, "metro_p75": 90000.0, "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": 72964.0, "metro_p50": 95000.0, "metro_p75": 102804.0, "metro_trend_direction": "up", "metro_trend_magnitude": "moderate", "national_p50": 94782.0, "national_trend_direction": "stable", "national_trend_magnitude": "stable"}, {"role": "Billing Specialist", "data_scope": "metro", "metro_p25": 39300.0, "metro_p50": 48958.8, "metro_p75": 59141.25, "metro_trend_direction": "up", "metro_trend_magnitude": "moderate", "national_p50": 49512.0, "national_trend_direction": "up", "national_trend_magnitude": "moderate"}, {"role": "Tax Specialist", "data_scope": "metro", "metro_p25": 50020.5, "metro_p50": 63877.0, "metro_p75": 80698.0, "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": "metro", "metro_p25": 52849.0, "metro_p50": 68647.6, "metro_p75": 72023.0, "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": 97448.5, "metro_p50": 122550.4, "metro_p75": 136972.5, "metro_trend_direction": "down", "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": "mt-nonmetropolitan-area/finance/2026-09.html", "pdf": "mt-nonmetropolitan-area/finance/2026-09.pdf"}, "published_at": "2026-10-09T14:33:31.832963+00:00", "report_html_url": "https://reports.wagescape.com/archive/v1/editions/mt-nonmetropolitan-area/finance/2026-09.html", "report_pdf_url": "https://reports.wagescape.com/archive/v1/editions/mt-nonmetropolitan-area/finance/2026-09.pdf"}