{"schema_version": 1, "id": "pueblo-co-msa/finance/2026-09", "product": "Labor Market Pulse", "metro": {"geography_id": 406, "label": "Pueblo, CO MSA", "slug": "pueblo-co-msa"}, "focus_area": {"key": "finance", "slug": "finance", "label": "Finance"}, "period": "2026-09", "public_after": "2026-09-01", "frozen_at": "2026-10-09T13:29:29.632542+00:00", "headline": "Pueblo unemployment hits 6.6% as Controller pay diverges sharply.", "headline_summary": "Pueblo's unemployment rate climbed to 6.6% against a national 4.1%, even as metro Controller pay rose to $143,268 while Senior Accountant and Financial Analyst pay fell significantly.", "key_indicators": [{"label": "Pueblo unemployment rate", "value": "6.6%", "context": "vs 4.1% national, 4.0% Colorado (August 2026)"}, {"label": "Pueblo employment change", "value": "-1.7k jobs", "context": "Nov 2025 to Apr 2026, 5th straight monthly decline"}, {"label": "CO financial activities jobs lost", "value": "~5,300", "context": "Since July 2025, statewide"}, {"label": "National wage growth", "value": "3.0% y/y", "context": "Sept 2026, below 3.2% consensus estimate"}], "takeaways": [{"headline": "Pueblo's labor surplus is deepening, not stabilizing.", "body": "Unemployment reached 6.6% in August against a national 4.1%, with five consecutive months of payroll declines tied to Amentum, Battelle, and Mission Foods separations. Finance teams filling mid-level roles likely have wider candidate pools and more pricing leverage than state or national data would suggest."}, {"headline": "Controller pay is pulling away from the rest of the ladder.", "body": "Metro Controller advertised pay sits at $143,268, up significantly and now well above the $113,754 national median, while Senior Accountant and FP&A Manager pay moved down locally. Scarcity appears concentrated at the senior oversight tier \u2014 a signal to prioritize retention there even as mid-level budgets loosen."}, {"headline": "National F&A hiring appetite hasn't reached Pueblo yet.", "body": "Three-quarters of F&A leaders nationally plan to add permanent headcount, but Pueblo's financial activities footprint is shrinking alongside Colorado's broader 5,300-job decline in the sector since July 2025. Local hiring plans built on national sentiment data risk overestimating competition for talent in this metro specifically."}, {"headline": "Tax Specialist pay signals a tightening specialty niche.", "body": "Metro Tax Specialist advertised pay rose significantly to $57,707, tracking a similarly sharp national increase to $65,842. Even amid broader metro softness, compliance-adjacent specialties appear to be pulling premium pay \u2014 worth flagging for budget cycles touching tax or audit support staffing."}], "local_conditions": "Pueblo's unemployment rate climbed to 6.6% in August \u2014 nearly 2.6 points above the national 4.1% rate \u2014 as the metro absorbs lingering fallout from Amentum's 485 layoffs, Battelle's wind-down, and Mission Foods' plant closure affecting 90 workers by late October. Employment has contracted for five straight months, down from 68.8 thousand in November 2025 to roughly 67.1 thousand by spring, leaving a shallow local talent pool even as Colorado's financial activities sector sheds jobs statewide.", "implications": "Metro-specific contraction in professional and financial roles \u2014 paired with statewide financial activities job losses of roughly 5,300 since mid-2025 \u2014 suggests Pueblo Finance leaders face a buyer's market for accounting and analyst talent even as national F&A hiring intentions run hot (74% planning headcount increases). Local advertised pay for Senior Accountant and Financial Analyst roles has moved down significantly even as Controller pay rises sharply, pointing to bifurcated demand: scarcity at the leadership tier, surplus at mid-level execution roles. Consider reviewing whether current requisitions for mid-level accounting and analyst positions can be filled at below-prior-year advertised rates given the deepening local labor surplus.", "looking_ahead": [{"category": "Worth watching", "body": "Mission Foods' 90 layoffs complete by October 27, adding to a local pool already carrying Amentum and Battelle separations. Watch whether any of this talent has transferable finance, accounting, or administrative experience relevant to current requisitions."}, {"category": "Emerging pressure point", "body": "Colorado's financial activities sector has lost roughly 5,300 jobs since July 2025, with no clear sign of stabilization in state-level data through August. Budget cycles assuming competitive pressure on finance hiring may need revisiting against this contraction."}, {"category": "Potential inflection point", "body": "National wage growth decelerated to 3.0% year-over-year in September, below the 3.2% consensus estimate, easing pressure on merit budgets. Watch whether Colorado's Q1 wage growth of 5.4% \u2014 well above national \u2014 persists into Q3 state releases, which would argue against assuming national deceleration applies locally."}, {"category": "Expected", "body": "Colorado's 2026 minimum wage of $15.16/hour continues to compress entry-level accounting and shared-services pay scales heading into 2027 budget planning. Expect continued upward pressure on starting rates for billing and administrative support roles even as professional-tier pay in Pueblo softens."}], "roles": [{"role": "Controller", "data_scope": "metro", "metro_p25": 87500.0, "metro_p50": 143268.0, "metro_p75": 158735.25, "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": 83288.0, "metro_p50": 95000.0, "metro_p75": 112941.0, "metro_trend_direction": "down", "metro_trend_magnitude": "significant", "national_p50": 87731.0, "national_trend_direction": "stable", "national_trend_magnitude": "stable"}, {"role": "Financial Analyst", "data_scope": "metro", "metro_p25": 72500.0, "metro_p50": 78847.0, "metro_p75": 80000.0, "metro_trend_direction": "down", "metro_trend_magnitude": "significant", "national_p50": 94782.0, "national_trend_direction": "stable", "national_trend_magnitude": "stable"}, {"role": "Billing Specialist", "data_scope": "metro", "metro_p25": 38445.0, "metro_p50": 42016.0, "metro_p75": 46342.25, "metro_trend_direction": "down", "metro_trend_magnitude": "moderate", "national_p50": 49512.0, "national_trend_direction": "up", "national_trend_magnitude": "moderate"}, {"role": "Tax Specialist", "data_scope": "metro", "metro_p25": 52891.5, "metro_p50": 57707.0, "metro_p75": 59975.0, "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": "state_rollup", "metro_p25": 58240.0, "metro_p50": 72023.0, "metro_p75": 79349.5, "metro_trend_direction": "stable", "metro_trend_magnitude": "stable", "national_p50": 71758.0, "national_trend_direction": "up", "national_trend_magnitude": "moderate"}, {"role": "FP&A Manager", "data_scope": "state_rollup", "metro_p25": 105408.75, "metro_p50": 127918.0, "metro_p75": 138500.0, "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": "pueblo-co-msa/finance/2026-09.html", "pdf": "pueblo-co-msa/finance/2026-09.pdf"}, "published_at": "2026-10-09T14:35:09.026629+00:00", "report_html_url": "https://reports.wagescape.com/archive/v1/editions/pueblo-co-msa/finance/2026-09.html", "report_pdf_url": "https://reports.wagescape.com/archive/v1/editions/pueblo-co-msa/finance/2026-09.pdf"}