{"schema_version": 1, "id": "rome-ga-msa/finance/2026-09", "product": "Labor Market Pulse", "metro": {"geography_id": 439, "label": "Rome, GA MSA", "slug": "rome-ga-msa"}, "focus_area": {"key": "finance", "slug": "finance", "label": "Finance"}, "period": "2026-09", "public_after": "2026-09-01", "frozen_at": "2026-10-09T13:29:39.881148+00:00", "headline": "Rome finance pay splits: analysts surge, FP&A managers retreat.", "headline_summary": "Rome MSA Financial Analyst advertised pay climbed to $106,860 \u2014 above the $94,782 national median \u2014 while FP&A Manager pay slipped to $116,719 even as metro unemployment tightened to 3.3% from 3.9% a year ago.", "key_indicators": [{"label": "Rome MSA unemployment", "value": "3.3%", "context": "Down from 3.9% a year ago"}, {"label": "Georgia unemployment", "value": "3.2%", "context": "0.9 pts below national 4.1% rate"}, {"label": "Financial Analyst advertised pay (metro)", "value": "$106,860", "context": "vs $94,782 national median"}, {"label": "National financial-sector job losses", "value": "-129,000", "context": "Since May 2025, BLS payrolls"}], "takeaways": [{"headline": "Financial Analyst pay is outrunning the national market.", "body": "Metro median advertised pay of $106,860 now sits above the $94,782 national figure, a reversal from typical secondary-metro patterns. This likely reflects a thin local bench rather than a structural shift in demand \u2014 budget accordingly rather than assuming the premium holds."}, {"headline": "FP&A Manager pay is softening against a tightening labor market.", "body": "Metro FP&A Manager median fell to $116,719, a moderate decline even as unemployment tightened year-over-year. Divergence between falling advertised pay and a tighter labor pool may suggest fewer active postings rather than reduced demand \u2014 worth confirming before assuming softened compensation pressure."}, {"headline": "Tax Specialist pay surged locally but remains well below national levels.", "body": "Metro median jumped significantly to $39,464, still less than two-thirds of the $65,842 national figure. Gap this wide suggests Rome employers have been under-pricing the role and are now correcting \u2014 a pattern worth checking against actual time-to-fill data."}, {"headline": "Statewide finance vacancy growth outpaces Rome's labor force expansion.", "body": "Georgia finance and statistics vacancies grew 4.9% year-over-year while Rome's unemployment rate sits at 3.3%, near a multi-year low. Recruiting into Rome from larger Georgia metros may require pay parity with state, not metro, medians for mid-to-senior finance roles."}], "local_conditions": "Rome MSA unemployment ticked up to 3.3% in August but remains sharply below the 3.9% reading a year earlier, signaling a labor market that has tightened meaningfully even as month-to-month volatility persists. Statewide finance and statistics vacancies rose 4.9% year-over-year through June, and Georgia's record labor force participation has not eased competition for finance talent in secondary metros like Rome.", "implications": "Local Financial Analyst advertised pay has moved up significantly to a $106,860 median \u2014 now exceeding the national figure of $94,782 \u2014 a sign that Rome employers are bidding aggressively for analytical talent even in a metro with a smaller finance labor pool. That dynamic sits against a national backdrop of financial-sector job losses (down 129,000 since May 2025) and decelerating wage growth (3.0% y/y in September), meaning Rome's local pressure is diverging from the national contraction story and likely reflects scarcity rather than sector growth. Consider benchmarking FP&A and analyst roles against local market movement rather than national averages when building FY2027 headcount budgets.", "looking_ahead": [{"category": "Worth watching", "body": "National financial-sector job losses have concentrated in insurance carriers; watch whether any Rome-area insurance or financial-services employers appear in Georgia's WARN filings, which currently show just 18 notices statewide in the last 90 days."}, {"category": "Emerging pressure point", "body": "Local Financial Analyst and Tax Specialist pay have moved up significantly this month while FP&A Manager pay softened \u2014 a split signal that could reflect uneven demand across finance subfunctions rather than a uniform market tightening."}, {"category": "Potential inflection point", "body": "National average hourly earnings growth decelerated to 3.0% y/y in September, below expectations, which could ease FY2027 salary budget planning if the trend holds through Rome's local postings data over the next two reporting cycles."}, {"category": "Expected", "body": "Georgia's labor force and employment both sit at all-time highs; expect continued competition for finance talent from Atlanta-area employers able to offer remote or hybrid arrangements into the Rome labor shed."}], "roles": [{"role": "Controller", "data_scope": "metro", "metro_p25": 103268.0, "metro_p50": 103278.2, "metro_p75": 103279.0, "metro_trend_direction": "up", "metro_trend_magnitude": "moderate", "national_p50": 113754.0, "national_trend_direction": "up", "national_trend_magnitude": "moderate"}, {"role": "Senior Accountant", "data_scope": "state_rollup", "metro_p25": 74905.0, "metro_p50": 85000.0, "metro_p75": 87717.0, "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": 89145.0, "metro_p50": 106860.0, "metro_p75": 106860.0, "metro_trend_direction": "up", "metro_trend_magnitude": "significant", "national_p50": 94782.0, "national_trend_direction": "stable", "national_trend_magnitude": "stable"}, {"role": "Billing Specialist", "data_scope": "state_rollup", "metro_p25": 35880.0, "metro_p50": 45128.0, "metro_p75": 52947.0, "metro_trend_direction": "stable", "metro_trend_magnitude": "stable", "national_p50": 49512.0, "national_trend_direction": "up", "national_trend_magnitude": "moderate"}, {"role": "Tax Specialist", "data_scope": "metro", "metro_p25": 25552.0, "metro_p50": 39464.2, "metro_p75": 41790.25, "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": 54020.0, "metro_p50": 70631.6, "metro_p75": 77388.0, "metro_trend_direction": "up", "metro_trend_magnitude": "moderate", "national_p50": 71758.0, "national_trend_direction": "up", "national_trend_magnitude": "moderate"}, {"role": "FP&A Manager", "data_scope": "state_rollup", "metro_p25": 101279.0, "metro_p50": 116719.0, "metro_p75": 130000.0, "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": "rome-ga-msa/finance/2026-09.html", "pdf": "rome-ga-msa/finance/2026-09.pdf"}, "published_at": "2026-10-09T14:35:36.561407+00:00", "report_html_url": "https://reports.wagescape.com/archive/v1/editions/rome-ga-msa/finance/2026-09.html", "report_pdf_url": "https://reports.wagescape.com/archive/v1/editions/rome-ga-msa/finance/2026-09.pdf"}