{"schema_version": 1, "id": "san-antonio-tx-msa/finance/2026-09", "product": "Labor Market Pulse", "metro": {"geography_id": 371, "label": "San Antonio, TX MSA", "slug": "san-antonio-tx-msa"}, "focus_area": {"key": "finance", "slug": "finance", "label": "Finance"}, "period": "2026-09", "public_after": "2026-09-01", "frozen_at": "2026-10-09T13:29:52.033521+00:00", "headline": "San Antonio finance pay lags state and nation despite tight talent signals.", "headline_summary": "San Antonio wage growth ran just 1.3% year-over-year in June versus 3.5% nationally, even as the national F&A Talent Shortage Index swung from a 108% surplus to a 77% shortage.", "key_indicators": [{"label": "Metro wage growth", "value": "1.3%", "context": "vs 2.9% Texas, 3.5% U.S. (June 2026)"}, {"label": "F&A Talent Shortage Index", "value": "77%", "context": "vs 108% surplus reading in 2025"}, {"label": "Metro unemployment rate", "value": "4.5%", "context": "vs 4.4% Texas, 4.1% U.S. (August 2026)"}, {"label": "National financial activities job losses", "value": "129,000", "context": "Cumulative since May 2025, led by insurance carriers"}], "takeaways": [{"headline": "San Antonio finance wages are lagging, not just flat.", "body": "Metro wage growth of 1.3% year-over-year in June sits far below the state's 2.9% and the nation's 3.5%, a gap wide enough to erode retention leverage even where headcount budgets are tight. Finance leaders benchmarking against statewide Texas wage data risk understating the local pay gap."}, {"headline": "FP&A talent is getting more expensive to replace, not hire.", "body": "FP&A Manager advertised pay in San Antonio fell to $117,767, a significant decline versus the stable national median of $128,139. A widening local-national gap on a strategically important role is consistent with either underinvestment in retention or a shrinking local candidate pool willing to work below national rates."}, {"headline": "Financial activities' national contraction has not reached San Antonio hiring yet.", "body": "National financial activities employment has shed 129,000 jobs since May 2025, concentrated in insurance carriers, but metro-level finance headcount data shows no parallel local collapse. Finance leaders should treat national sector softness as an early warning rather than an assumption already priced into local hiring conditions."}, {"headline": "Tax Specialist pay signals a local-national disconnect worth investigating.", "body": "Metro Tax Specialist advertised pay declined moderately to $56,138 while the national median rose significantly to $65,842, one of the widest role-level divergences in this month's data. Consider whether this reflects genuine local labor surplus or a classification/scope mismatch distorting the comparison."}], "local_conditions": "San Antonio-New Braunfels payrolls lost 1,600 workers year-over-year in August even as Texas added 159,400 jobs statewide, with the metro's 1.3% June wage growth trailing Texas (2.9%) and the nation (3.5%) by a wide margin. National financial activities shed 7,000 jobs in September \u2014 part of a 129,000-job contraction since May 2025 concentrated in insurance carriers \u2014 while information-sector losses locally (down 6.6% to 7.7%) compound the metro's underperformance relative to Austin's 7,500 August job gains.", "implications": "Soft local wage growth combined with a national finance hiring slowdown gives Finance leaders unusual budget breathing room for base-pay increases, but the national F&A Talent Shortage Index jumping from a 2025 Surplus of 108% to a 2026 Shortage of 77% signals that controller, FP&A, and accounting talent will not stay cheap for long. San Antonio's FP&A Manager advertised pay fell significantly (down to $117,767 metro median against $128,139 nationally), a gap that complicates retention for mid-level finance leadership even as entry and mid-tier roles stay soft. Consider reviewing FP&A and controller-level compensation bands against national medians now, before accelerating national F&A hiring activity closes the local discount.", "looking_ahead": [{"category": "Early indicator", "body": "Watch whether the national F&A Talent Shortage Index (now 77%, reversed from a 108% surplus in 2025) begins showing up in San Antonio advertised pay for controller and senior accountant roles over the next two reporting cycles."}, {"category": "Emerging pressure point", "body": "Information-sector job losses locally (down 6.6-7.7% year-over-year) may release finance-adjacent analytical talent into the local market; monitor whether this softens Financial Analyst or Credit Analyst advertised pay further."}, {"category": "Worth watching", "body": "Texas WARN filings are down 45% in affected workers year-over-year, but Conifer Health Solutions' 1,037-position cut this September shows large single-employer events can still move the local labor pool quickly."}, {"category": "Potential inflection point", "body": "National average hourly earnings growth decelerated to 3.0% year-over-year in September, below the 3.2% forecast \u2014 if this trend holds, Finance leaders may find Q4 merit budget assumptions set earlier in the year were too conservative."}], "roles": [{"role": "Controller", "data_scope": "metro", "metro_p25": 91642.25, "metro_p50": 116157.0, "metro_p75": 123472.0, "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": "metro", "metro_p25": 75998.0, "metro_p50": 84501.6, "metro_p75": 86979.75, "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": 68508.0, "metro_p50": 84280.0, "metro_p75": 93318.0, "metro_trend_direction": "up", "metro_trend_magnitude": "moderate", "national_p50": 94782.0, "national_trend_direction": "stable", "national_trend_magnitude": "stable"}, {"role": "Billing Specialist", "data_scope": "metro", "metro_p25": 35550.0, "metro_p50": 43680.0, "metro_p75": 50000.0, "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": 42851.0, "metro_p50": 56138.0, "metro_p75": 69521.5, "metro_trend_direction": "down", "metro_trend_magnitude": "moderate", "national_p50": 65842.4, "national_trend_direction": "up", "national_trend_magnitude": "significant"}, {"role": "Credit Analyst", "data_scope": "metro", "metro_p25": 60967.5, "metro_p50": 70000.0, "metro_p75": 72763.5, "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": "metro", "metro_p25": 102219.25, "metro_p50": 117767.2, "metro_p75": 123838.25, "metro_trend_direction": "down", "metro_trend_magnitude": "significant", "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": "san-antonio-tx-msa/finance/2026-09.html", "pdf": "san-antonio-tx-msa/finance/2026-09.pdf"}, "published_at": "2026-10-09T14:35:50.699812+00:00", "report_html_url": "https://reports.wagescape.com/archive/v1/editions/san-antonio-tx-msa/finance/2026-09.html", "report_pdf_url": "https://reports.wagescape.com/archive/v1/editions/san-antonio-tx-msa/finance/2026-09.pdf"}