{"schema_version": 1, "id": "ogden-clearfield-ut-msa/finance/2026-10", "product": "Labor Market Pulse", "metro": {"geography_id": 7, "label": "Ogden-Clearfield, UT MSA", "slug": "ogden-clearfield-ut-msa"}, "focus_area": {"key": "finance", "slug": "finance", "label": "Finance"}, "period": "2026-10", "public_after": "2026-10-01", "frozen_at": "2026-11-03T05:45:27.032165+00:00", "headline": "Ogden Finance pay diverges sharply by role as hiring cools.", "headline_summary": "Metro Financial Analyst pay ($94,927) now outpaces the national median while Controller pay slipped to $110,354, even as metro job growth decelerated from roughly 297 to a net monthly loss of 250 jobs in 2025.", "key_indicators": [{"label": "Metro unemployment rate", "value": "3.5%", "context": "Held since April 2026, vs 4.1% national"}, {"label": "Metro job growth pace", "value": "-250/month (2025)", "context": "Down from +297/month five-year average"}, {"label": "Financial Analyst advertised pay", "value": "$94,927 metro", "context": "Above $94,646 national median"}, {"label": "CFO turnover rate", "value": "18.3%", "context": "Highest since pandemic, per Crist|Kolder"}], "takeaways": [{"headline": "Financial Analyst pay is outrunning the national market.", "body": "Metro median advertised pay of $94,927 now exceeds the national median of $94,646, a reversal worth flagging given Ogden's historically lower cost-of-labor position. This suggests local demand for analytical finance talent has tightened faster than peer markets, with direct implications for FP&A budget planning and backfill cost assumptions."}, {"headline": "Tax Specialist advertised pay is climbing faster than almost any other finance role.", "body": "Metro median of $83,791 sits well above the national figure of $69,556, both tagged as significant increases. Compressed timelines around close and compliance cycles appear to be pushing employers to pay a premium for scarce tax expertise in a labor pool DWS describes as selective."}, {"headline": "Controller pay softened locally while the national market firmed.", "body": "Metro median Controller pay fell to $110,354 even as the national median rose to $115,420 \u2014 a divergence that may reflect metro-specific supply dynamics or a shift in the mix of postings. Worth testing against internal Controller vacancy data before assuming market softening is structural."}, {"headline": "Billing Specialist pay decline signals a role losing leverage.", "body": "Metro median dropped to $43,835 against a stable national median of $49,000, a meaningful metro-specific gap. Lower-skill transactional finance roles appear more exposed to the broader slowdown in metro job creation than analytical or compliance-adjacent positions."}], "local_conditions": "Ogden-Clearfield's unemployment rate held at 3.5% through mid-2026, but job growth has decelerated sharply from a five-year average of roughly 297 jobs added monthly to a 2025 pattern of net monthly losses averaging 250 jobs, before stabilizing with 1,000-job gains in both July and August. Manufacturing continues to anchor the metro's wage structure at $1,453 average weekly wages, while the statewide shift toward a Department of Workforce Services-described 'low hire, low fire' posture signals employers are retaining staff even as new requisitions slow.", "implications": "Deceleration in metro job growth alongside flat 3.5% unemployment suggests Finance functions face candidate scarcity for mid-level roles even as overall headcount expansion cools \u2014 a combination that complicates budget cycle planning when backfills take longer but volume growth doesn't justify aggressive hiring. Metro-specific pay movements in Financial Analyst (+significant) and Tax Specialist (+significant) roles point to where retention risk is concentrated during close and audit-heavy periods, while national CFO turnover near 18.3% raises succession-planning stakes locally. Consider reviewing contingency staffing plans for audit and close cycles given tightening candidate availability in analytical finance roles.", "looking_ahead": [{"category": "Early indicator", "body": "Watch whether Weber County's September employment forecast of 125,461 materializes; a miss would confirm the 2025 pattern of net job losses is reasserting itself, raising questions about the durability of the July-August rebound."}, {"category": "Emerging pressure point", "body": "National CFO turnover at 18.3% and an external hiring rate of 37.5% raise the probability of leadership transitions touching Ogden-based Finance teams; succession and interim-coverage planning deserves attention before year-end close cycles begin."}, {"category": "Worth watching", "body": "Utah's statewide shift to selective hiring alongside 13 WARN notices affecting 1,861 workers in 2026 suggests a thin but real possibility of experienced finance talent entering the local market mid-cycle \u2014 a potential opening for opportunistic backfills."}, {"category": "Potential inflection point", "body": "National data showing 70% of finance leaders increasing contract talent use in H2 2026 may extend to Ogden employers facing scarce analytical and tax talent; monitor whether contingent staffing requests rise ahead of Q1 audit prep."}], "roles": [{"role": "Controller", "data_scope": "metro", "metro_p25": 80329.75, "metro_p50": 110354.0, "metro_p75": 119027.0, "metro_trend_direction": "down", "metro_trend_magnitude": "moderate", "national_p50": 115420.0, "national_trend_direction": "up", "national_trend_magnitude": "moderate"}, {"role": "Senior Accountant", "data_scope": "metro", "metro_p25": 70657.75, "metro_p50": 82274.4, "metro_p75": 87779.25, "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": 69295.0, "metro_p50": 94927.2, "metro_p75": 102577.0, "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": 36975.25, "metro_p50": 43835.0, "metro_p75": 49160.0, "metro_trend_direction": "down", "metro_trend_magnitude": "moderate", "national_p50": 49000.0, "national_trend_direction": "stable", "national_trend_magnitude": "stable"}, {"role": "Tax Specialist", "data_scope": "metro", "metro_p25": 42887.0, "metro_p50": 83790.8, "metro_p75": 90799.0, "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": 52500.0, "metro_p50": 67346.0, "metro_p75": 78803.5, "metro_trend_direction": "up", "metro_trend_magnitude": "significant", "national_p50": 71397.0, "national_trend_direction": "stable", "national_trend_magnitude": "stable"}, {"role": "FP&A Manager", "data_scope": "metro", "metro_p25": 107519.0, "metro_p50": 126237.8, "metro_p75": 137613.0, "metro_trend_direction": "up", "metro_trend_magnitude": "moderate", "national_p50": 130000.0, "national_trend_direction": "up", "national_trend_magnitude": "moderate"}], "industry_snapshot": [], "citations": [{"source_name": "Utah Department of Workforce Services", "source_url": null, "statement": "Ogden-Clearfield MSA unemployment at 3.5% and job growth deceleration"}, {"source_name": "Utah Department of Workforce Services", "source_url": null, "statement": "Manufacturing average weekly wage of $1,453 in metro"}, {"source_name": "Crist|Kolder Associates", "source_url": null, "statement": "CFO turnover projected at 18.3% in 2026"}, {"source_name": "AFP FP&A Forum", "source_url": null, "statement": "70% of finance leaders increasing contract talent use in H2 2026"}, {"source_name": "Utah WARN Act Tracker", "source_url": null, "statement": "13 WARN notices filed in Utah in 2026 affecting 1,861 workers"}, {"source_name": "Bureau of Labor Statistics", "source_url": null, "statement": "National unemployment rate at 4.1% in October 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": "ogden-clearfield-ut-msa/finance/2026-10.html", "pdf": "ogden-clearfield-ut-msa/finance/2026-10.pdf"}, "published_at": "2026-11-03T08:27:29.309558+00:00", "report_html_url": "https://reports.wagescape.com/archive/v1/editions/ogden-clearfield-ut-msa/finance/2026-10.html", "report_pdf_url": "https://reports.wagescape.com/archive/v1/editions/ogden-clearfield-ut-msa/finance/2026-10.pdf"}