{"schema_version": 1, "id": "nashville-davidson-murfreesboro-franklin-tn-msa/finance/2026-10", "product": "Labor Market Pulse", "metro": {"geography_id": 281, "label": "Nashville-Davidson-Murfreesboro-Franklin, TN MSA", "slug": "nashville-davidson-murfreesboro-franklin-tn-msa"}, "focus_area": {"key": "finance", "slug": "finance", "label": "Finance"}, "period": "2026-10", "public_after": "2026-10-01", "frozen_at": "2026-11-03T05:41:52.519275+00:00", "headline": "Nashville finance jobs shrink while finance pay climbs.", "headline_summary": "Tennessee financial activities employment fell 4,100 over the year even as Nashville Tax Specialist pay rose to a $76,959 median and metro unemployment held near 3.1%, well below the national 4.2% rate.", "key_indicators": [{"label": "Nashville metro unemployment", "value": "3.1%", "context": "vs 4.2% national rate, Aug 2026"}, {"label": "TN financial activities jobs", "value": "-4,100", "context": "Year-over-year loss, TDLWD"}, {"label": "CFO turnover rate", "value": "18.3%", "context": "Highest since pandemic, Crist|Kolder 2026"}, {"label": "TN projected 2026 job growth", "value": "0.9%", "context": "vs typical ~60,000/yr growth pace"}], "takeaways": [{"headline": "Financial activities jobs are shrinking while finance pay climbs.", "body": "Tennessee lost 4,100 financial activities jobs over the year even as Controller and Tax Specialist advertised pay rose locally. Fewer roles with firmer pay points to selective, high-stakes hiring \u2014 budget for depth at senior levels as the priority over headcount growth."}, {"headline": "Nashville's 3.1% jobless rate keeps finance recruiting a seller's market.", "body": "Metro unemployment runs roughly a full point below the national 4.2% rate, meaning Nashville finance teams compete in a tighter labor pool than most peer metros. Compensation benchmarking should weight local scarcity over national medians when setting offers for Controller and Senior Accountant roles."}, {"headline": "FP&A Manager pay is diverging from the national trend.", "body": "Metro FP&A Manager advertised pay fell moderately to $128,103 even as the national median rose to $130,000, a reversal worth investigating before assuming parity with national benchmarks. Falling local demand or a maturing local talent pipeline may explain the gap \u2014 worth testing before resetting offer ranges downward."}, {"headline": "CFO turnover risk raises the cost of vacancy alongside salary.", "body": "National CFO turnover is projected at 18.3% for 2026, the highest since the pandemic, with 37.5% of replacements hired externally. Vacancy during close or audit cycles carries real cost \u2014 succession planning and interim coverage deserve a line in the FY2027 workforce budget."}], "local_conditions": "Nashville's unemployment rate sat near 3.1% in August 2026, roughly 110 basis points tighter than the national rate of 4.2%, as nonfarm employment grew 0.7% year-over-year to 1.2 million jobs on continued gains in healthcare, leisure/hospitality and state government. Financial activities bucked that growth statewide, shedding 4,100 jobs over the year even as Nashville's finance talent competes directly against tech, logistics and professional-services employers for the same tightening labor pool.", "implications": "Tight metro labor supply combined with sector-level softness in financial activities creates a split signal for Finance leaders: headcount costs stay elevated even where hiring volume is down, because scarce qualified talent still commands premium advertised pay \u2014 seen locally in Tax Specialist pay up significantly to a $76,959 median and Controller pay up moderately to $119,177. National CFO turnover projected at 18.3% and 85% of CFOs reporting finance talent shortages suggest budget cycles should build in vacancy and backfill risk at both the leadership layer and the staff level. Consider stress-testing FY2027 headcount budgets against both unfilled-role carrying costs and the premium required to retain controllers and tax specialists through close and audit season.", "looking_ahead": [{"category": "Expected", "body": "Tennessee's financial activities sector has shed jobs for a full year; watch whether Nashville-specific postings for Controller and FP&A roles stabilize or continue softening into Q1 2027 planning cycles."}, {"category": "Emerging pressure point", "body": "Contract and interim finance staffing is rising nationally, with 70% of finance leaders increasing contract use in H2 2026. Expect more of this model to appear in Nashville audit and close-cycle coverage, with implications for fixed versus variable cost ratios."}, {"category": "Worth watching", "body": "Tennessee's projected 2026 job growth of 0.9% marks a sharp slowdown from typical annual averages near 60,000 jobs, a pattern Finance leaders should track against their own revenue and headcount growth assumptions for FY2027."}, {"category": "Potential inflection point", "body": "Nashville International Airport's planned 2027 cargo expansion is expected to draw additional logistics investment, a demand source that could pull finance and accounting talent from existing employers as new operations scale up."}], "roles": [{"role": "Controller", "data_scope": "metro", "metro_p25": 94297.0, "metro_p50": 119177.0, "metro_p75": 132500.0, "metro_trend_direction": "up", "metro_trend_magnitude": "moderate", "national_p50": 115420.0, "national_trend_direction": "up", "national_trend_magnitude": "moderate"}, {"role": "Senior Accountant", "data_scope": "metro", "metro_p25": 78751.0, "metro_p50": 85000.0, "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": 70950.0, "metro_p50": 90000.0, "metro_p75": 98846.0, "metro_trend_direction": "stable", "metro_trend_magnitude": "stable", "national_p50": 94646.0, "national_trend_direction": "stable", "national_trend_magnitude": "stable"}, {"role": "Billing Specialist", "data_scope": "metro", "metro_p25": 37798.0, "metro_p50": 49413.4, "metro_p75": 55170.75, "metro_trend_direction": "stable", "metro_trend_magnitude": "stable", "national_p50": 49000.0, "national_trend_direction": "stable", "national_trend_magnitude": "stable"}, {"role": "Tax Specialist", "data_scope": "metro", "metro_p25": 42775.0, "metro_p50": 76958.6, "metro_p75": 98125.0, "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": 50071.25, "metro_p50": 61329.0, "metro_p75": 65643.25, "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": "metro", "metro_p25": 99717.75, "metro_p50": 128102.8, "metro_p75": 132550.0, "metro_trend_direction": "down", "metro_trend_magnitude": "moderate", "national_p50": 130000.0, "national_trend_direction": "up", "national_trend_magnitude": "moderate"}], "industry_snapshot": [], "citations": [{"source_name": "U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics", "source_url": null, "statement": "Nashville metro unemployment rate and nonfarm job growth, August 2026"}, {"source_name": "Tennessee Department of Labor and Workforce Development", "source_url": null, "statement": "Tennessee financial activities sector job losses over the year"}, {"source_name": "Crist|Kolder Associates / MAVI", "source_url": null, "statement": "CFO turnover projected at 18.3% for 2026, 85% report talent shortages"}, {"source_name": "AFP FP&A Forum", "source_url": null, "statement": "70% of finance leaders increasing contract talent use in H2 2026"}, {"source_name": "Tennessee Department of Labor and Workforce Development", "source_url": null, "statement": "Tennessee 2026 projected job growth of 0.9%, down from historical averages"}, {"source_name": "SpotWork Nashville Warehouse Labor Market Report", "source_url": null, "statement": "Nashville International Airport 2027 cargo expansion plans"}], "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": "nashville-davidson-murfreesboro-franklin-tn-msa/finance/2026-10.html", "pdf": "nashville-davidson-murfreesboro-franklin-tn-msa/finance/2026-10.pdf"}, "published_at": "2026-11-03T08:26:53.035799+00:00", "report_html_url": "https://reports.wagescape.com/archive/v1/editions/nashville-davidson-murfreesboro-franklin-tn-msa/finance/2026-10.html", "report_pdf_url": "https://reports.wagescape.com/archive/v1/editions/nashville-davidson-murfreesboro-franklin-tn-msa/finance/2026-10.pdf"}