{"schema_version": 1, "id": "niles-benton-harbor-mi-msa/finance/2026-08", "product": "Labor Market Pulse", "metro": {"geography_id": 284, "label": "Niles-Benton Harbor, MI MSA", "slug": "niles-benton-harbor-mi-msa"}, "focus_area": {"key": "finance", "slug": "finance", "label": "Finance"}, "period": "2026-08", "public_after": "2026-08-01", "frozen_at": "2026-10-09T16:26:35.928384+00:00", "headline": "Niles finance pay splits: Controllers fall, Credit Analysts climb.", "headline_summary": "Metro Controller advertised pay dropped to $91,375 against a stable $112,500 national median, while Credit Analyst pay rose significantly to $68,781 amid a broader metro payroll contraction.", "key_indicators": [{"label": "Metro Controller advertised pay", "value": "$91,375", "context": "Down significantly vs stable $112,500 national"}, {"label": "Niles MSA employment trend", "value": "Contracted", "context": "August 2026, breaking recent Michigan job gains"}, {"label": "Michigan unemployment rate", "value": "5.0%", "context": "Up 0.1pt; 0.9pt above 4.1% national rate"}, {"label": "Benton Harbor city unemployment", "value": "21.6%", "context": "Vs ~4.9% Berrien County-wide (Feb 2026)"}], "takeaways": [{"headline": "Controller pay is falling locally while national demand holds firm.", "body": "Metro Controller advertised pay dropped significantly to $91,375, versus a stable $112,500 national median \u2014 a gap wide enough to complicate retention if local employers try to hold the line on comp while national competitors don't."}, {"headline": "Tax Specialist pay collapse looks like a local market breakdown, not a trend.", "body": "Metro Tax Specialist pay fell significantly to $33,130 while the national median rose significantly to $66,725, a divergence too large to reflect skill differences alone and worth investigating before benchmarking against it."}, {"headline": "Credit Analyst and Senior Accountant pay gains suggest selective tightness.", "body": "Both roles posted moderate-to-significant local increases even as broader metro payrolls contracted, indicating employers are still competing hard for specific finance functions tied to receivables and reporting cycles."}, {"headline": "Shrinking professional services capacity raises audit and close risk.", "body": "Michigan's professional and business services sector lost 6,000 jobs year-over-year, thinning the bench of outsourced accounting and audit support finance teams may lean on during peak close or audit periods."}], "local_conditions": "Niles MSA nonfarm employment contracted in August even as Berrien County unemployment held near historically moderate levels, a divergence that appears to reflect softening manufacturing and professional-services demand layered on top of long-standing concentrated distress in Benton Harbor, where unemployment runs above 21%. Michigan's broader payroll pullback (-2,000 in August, first decline in five months) and a statewide labor force contraction of 6.8% year-over-year compound the picture, suggesting the metro's finance talent pool is shrinking even as headline joblessness stays contained.", "implications": "Contracting metro payrolls alongside a shrinking regional labor force mean Finance leaders should expect longer requisition timelines for controller, FP&A, and senior accountant openings even without a spike in local unemployment \u2014 availability, not just cost, is the binding constraint. Falling advertised pay for Controller (-significant) and Tax Specialist (-significant) roles locally, against national medians holding stable or rising, points to a metro-specific repricing that could reflect thinner competition for talent or weaker local demand rather than a national trend finance leaders can rely on. Consider reviewing headcount and vendor-support contingency plans now, given that Michigan's professional and business services sector has lost 6,000 jobs year-over-year, tightening the pool of outsourced accounting and audit capacity available to backstop internal teams.", "looking_ahead": [{"category": "Worth watching", "body": "Whether Niles MSA nonfarm employment stabilizes in September's release or extends August's contraction, which would sharpen recruiting difficulty for finance roles requiring local presence."}, {"category": "Emerging pressure point", "body": "Metro Controller and Tax Specialist advertised pay are falling sharply against stable-to-rising national medians; sustained divergence could force a compensation strategy reset if local employers start losing candidates to remote national postings."}, {"category": "Early indicator", "body": "Benton Harbor's concentrated unemployment (21.6%) against moderate county-wide rates suggests untapped labor supply that could ease entry-level finance hiring if workforce development or transportation barriers are addressed."}, {"category": "Potential inflection point", "body": "Michigan's statewide labor force decline (-6.8% YoY) and Berrien County's tightening trend could combine to push audit and close-season staffing costs higher even if headline unemployment stays flat."}], "roles": [{"role": "Controller", "data_scope": "metro", "metro_p25": 80000.0, "metro_p50": 91375.0, "metro_p75": 103534.0, "metro_trend_direction": "down", "metro_trend_magnitude": "significant", "national_p50": 112500.0, "national_trend_direction": "stable", "national_trend_magnitude": "stable"}, {"role": "Senior Accountant", "data_scope": "metro", "metro_p25": 75196.0, "metro_p50": 81555.0, "metro_p75": 95000.0, "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": "state_rollup", "metro_p25": 68731.0, "metro_p50": 79928.8, "metro_p75": 88266.0, "metro_trend_direction": "up", "metro_trend_magnitude": "moderate", "national_p50": 82905.0, "national_trend_direction": "stable", "national_trend_magnitude": "stable"}, {"role": "Billing Specialist", "data_scope": "metro", "metro_p25": 38541.0, "metro_p50": 45760.0, "metro_p75": 45760.0, "metro_trend_direction": "up", "metro_trend_magnitude": "moderate", "national_p50": 49700.0, "national_trend_direction": "up", "national_trend_magnitude": "moderate"}, {"role": "Tax Specialist", "data_scope": "metro", "metro_p25": 33026.0, "metro_p50": 33130.0, "metro_p75": 61140.0, "metro_trend_direction": "down", "metro_trend_magnitude": "significant", "national_p50": 66725.0, "national_trend_direction": "up", "national_trend_magnitude": "significant"}, {"role": "Credit Analyst", "data_scope": "state_rollup", "metro_p25": 56786.75, "metro_p50": 68781.0, "metro_p75": 74556.0, "metro_trend_direction": "up", "metro_trend_magnitude": "significant", "national_p50": 72000.0, "national_trend_direction": "up", "national_trend_magnitude": "moderate"}, {"role": "FP&A Manager", "data_scope": "state_rollup", "metro_p25": 97905.0, "metro_p50": 123258.0, "metro_p75": 134500.0, "metro_trend_direction": "stable", "metro_trend_magnitude": "stable", "national_p50": 127341.0, "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": "September 2026", "files": {"html": "niles-benton-harbor-mi-msa/finance/2026-08.html", "pdf": "niles-benton-harbor-mi-msa/finance/2026-08.pdf"}, "published_at": "2026-10-09T16:35:09.961659+00:00", "report_html_url": "https://reports.wagescape.com/archive/v1/editions/niles-benton-harbor-mi-msa/finance/2026-08.html", "report_pdf_url": "https://reports.wagescape.com/archive/v1/editions/niles-benton-harbor-mi-msa/finance/2026-08.pdf"}