{"schema_version": 1, "id": "provo-orem-ut-msa/finance/2026-08", "product": "Labor Market Pulse", "metro": {"geography_id": 423, "label": "Provo-Orem, UT MSA", "slug": "provo-orem-ut-msa"}, "focus_area": {"key": "finance", "slug": "finance", "label": "Finance"}, "period": "2026-08", "public_after": "2026-08-01", "frozen_at": "2026-10-09T16:26:29.542738+00:00", "headline": "Provo Finance pay splits: analysts up, tax and billing down.", "headline_summary": "Provo-area Financial Analyst advertised pay climbed to $84,642 against a national median of $82,905, while Tax Specialist pay fell to $44,730 \u2014 a third below the $66,725 national figure.", "key_indicators": [{"label": "Utah unemployment rate", "value": "3.5%", "context": "vs 4.1% national, down from 3.6% in July"}, {"label": "Financial Analyst advertised pay, metro", "value": "$84,642", "context": "Up significantly; exceeds $82,905 national median"}, {"label": "Tax Specialist advertised pay, metro", "value": "$44,730", "context": "33% below $66,725 national median"}, {"label": "Utah financial activities job growth", "value": "+2,200 jobs", "context": "Trails professional/business services' +8,500"}], "takeaways": [{"headline": "Analyst pay is pulling away from the rest of Finance.", "body": "Metro Financial Analyst advertised pay rose to $84,642, now exceeding the national median of $82,905, while Controller pay also moved up moderately to $126,250. This is consistent with national data showing 82% of F&A leaders paying AI-skill premiums, concentrated in forecasting and analytical roles rather than compliance or transactional functions."}, {"headline": "Tax and billing roles are getting cheaper to fill locally, not nationally.", "body": "Tax Specialist metro pay fell significantly to $44,730, roughly a third below the national median of $66,725, and Billing Specialist metro pay dropped as national rates climbed. Divergence this wide between local and national trends for the same roles may signal metro-specific oversupply or reduced local demand for transactional finance talent worth confirming before setting FY27 ranges."}, {"headline": "Utah's tight labor market is not translating into broad Finance wage pressure.", "body": "Statewide unemployment sits at 3.5%, beating the national rate by 0.6 points, yet Utah's financial activities sector added only 2,200 jobs against 8,500 in professional and business services. Tight overall labor supply is not automatically driving up pay across all Finance roles, reinforcing the need for role-level rather than sector-level benchmarking."}, {"headline": "National hiring urgency in Finance may not fully translate locally yet.", "body": "74% of F&A leaders nationally plan permanent headcount increases and 90% report difficulty filling roles, per national survey data, but Utah's cooling hiring landscape and falling labor force participation suggest local candidate scarcity may show up differently than the national narrative implies. Track whether Provo-area postings show similar above-range offer behavior before assuming national urgency applies at the metro level."}], "local_conditions": "Utah County's labor market is running tighter than the national picture, with statewide unemployment at 3.5% against 4.1% nationally, even as Finance and Analyst roles show sharply diverging advertised pay trajectories within the same metro. Financial Analyst pay is up significantly ($84,642 metro median) while Tax Specialist and Billing Specialist advertised rates have fallen 5-10%, suggesting employers are concentrating scarce compensation dollars on forecasting and analytical talent rather than transactional finance functions.", "implications": "Divergent pay movement across Finance job families signals that headcount budgets are being reallocated toward roles tied to forecasting, planning and AI-enabled analysis, rather than rising uniformly with inflation or tenure. Controllers building FY27 headcount plans should expect Financial Analyst and Controller-level roles to require above-plan offers to close, while transactional roles like Tax Specialist and Billing Specialist may see easier fills at flat or reduced advertised rates. Consider reviewing headcount cost models role-by-role rather than applying a blanket merit or market adjustment across the finance function.", "looking_ahead": [{"category": "Expected release", "body": "Utah Department of Workforce Services August 2026 metro-level data for Provo-Orem-Lehi MSA was pending release as of this writing; confirm updated unemployment and payroll figures before finalizing Q4 headcount plans."}, {"category": "Emerging pressure point", "body": "Utah's Information sector lost 2,300 jobs year-over-year, a signal worth tracking for fintech and finance-automation hiring pipelines in Utah County, where tech and finance talent pools often overlap."}, {"category": "Worth watching", "body": "13 WARN notices affecting 1,684 workers have been filed statewide in 2026, concentrated in healthcare, manufacturing and retail rather than finance; monitor for any spillover into finance/accounting talent supply if manufacturing-adjacent controllership roles are affected."}, {"category": "Potential inflection point", "body": "National real wage growth turned slightly negative month-over-month (average hourly earnings up 0.3% against 0.4% CPI growth), a dynamic that could pressure Utah County employers to revisit merit budgets if it persists into Q4 budget cycles."}], "roles": [{"role": "Controller", "data_scope": "metro", "metro_p25": 103765.0, "metro_p50": 126250.0, "metro_p75": 140000.0, "metro_trend_direction": "up", "metro_trend_magnitude": "moderate", "national_p50": 112500.0, "national_trend_direction": "stable", "national_trend_magnitude": "stable"}, {"role": "Senior Accountant", "data_scope": "metro", "metro_p25": 78443.25, "metro_p50": 82574.4, "metro_p75": 87465.0, "metro_trend_direction": "down", "metro_trend_magnitude": "moderate", "national_p50": 87731.0, "national_trend_direction": "stable", "national_trend_magnitude": "stable"}, {"role": "Financial Analyst", "data_scope": "metro", "metro_p25": 65342.0, "metro_p50": 84642.0, "metro_p75": 88924.0, "metro_trend_direction": "up", "metro_trend_magnitude": "significant", "national_p50": 82905.0, "national_trend_direction": "stable", "national_trend_magnitude": "stable"}, {"role": "Billing Specialist", "data_scope": "metro", "metro_p25": 35360.0, "metro_p50": 44341.6, "metro_p75": 48880.0, "metro_trend_direction": "down", "metro_trend_magnitude": "moderate", "national_p50": 49700.0, "national_trend_direction": "up", "national_trend_magnitude": "moderate"}, {"role": "Tax Specialist", "data_scope": "metro", "metro_p25": 36857.0, "metro_p50": 44730.0, "metro_p75": 61739.0, "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": 54144.0, "metro_p50": 70684.0, "metro_p75": 75000.0, "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": 97382.5, "metro_p50": 121981.8, "metro_p75": 132326.0, "metro_trend_direction": "up", "metro_trend_magnitude": "moderate", "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": "provo-orem-ut-msa/finance/2026-08.html", "pdf": "provo-orem-ut-msa/finance/2026-08.pdf"}, "published_at": "2026-10-09T16:35:29.659666+00:00", "report_html_url": "https://reports.wagescape.com/archive/v1/editions/provo-orem-ut-msa/finance/2026-08.html", "report_pdf_url": "https://reports.wagescape.com/archive/v1/editions/provo-orem-ut-msa/finance/2026-08.pdf"}