{"schema_version": 1, "id": "tampa-st-petersburg-clearwater-fl/finance/2026-08", "product": "Labor Market Pulse", "metro": {"geography_id": 453, "label": "Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater, FL", "slug": "tampa-st-petersburg-clearwater-fl"}, "focus_area": {"key": "finance", "slug": "finance", "label": "Finance"}, "period": "2026-08", "public_after": "2026-08-01", "frozen_at": "2026-10-09T16:27:07.081311+00:00", "headline": "Tampa finance pay holds steady while Florida's talent pool shrinks.", "headline_summary": "Florida's financial activities sector shed 14,300 jobs year-over-year even as Tampa Bay wages climbed 5.14% to $66,671, leaving Finance leaders to reconcile stable advertised pay for Controller ($121,681) and FP&A Manager ($121,204) roles against a visibly tightening statewide talent supply.", "key_indicators": [{"label": "Florida financial activities employment", "value": "-14,300 YoY", "context": "Statewide loss despite +21,800 total FL jobs in August"}, {"label": "Tampa metro unemployment rate", "value": "4.5%", "context": "vs 4.1% national, 2.7% Miami-Dade"}, {"label": "Tampa Bay average wage growth", "value": "5.14% YoY", "context": "to $66,671, still ~$9K below U.S. average"}, {"label": "Miami-Dade finance/insurance wage growth", "value": "9.8% YoY", "context": "vs Palm Beach's -3.5% over same period"}], "takeaways": [{"headline": "Tampa's finance pay is stable \u2014 but stability may be misleading.", "body": "Controller and FP&A Manager advertised pay both show stable trend signals locally, yet statewide financial activities employment fell by 14,300 positions year-over-year. Flat pay in a contracting labor supply is consistent with employers holding budgeted ranges rather than reflecting genuine market equilibrium \u2014 a gap likely to surface in offer acceptance rates."}, {"headline": "Geography inside Florida now matters more than the state average.", "body": "Miami-Dade finance/insurance wages grew 9.8% year-over-year while Palm Beach fell 3.5%, showing Florida's finance labor market has split into distinct micro-markets rather than moving as one. Tampa's comparative position sits closer to Miami-Dade's growth trajectory than Palm Beach's contraction, which should inform where FP&A teams benchmark against peer metros rather than statewide figures."}, {"headline": "AI-skills premiums are creating budgeting blind spots for controllers.", "body": "Technical accounting and SEC roles are commanding 6-15% AI-related pay premiums nationally, with some AI/ML-adjacent finance skills pushing salaries up to 56% higher. Tampa's stable advertised pay for Senior Accountant and Financial Analyst roles may understate true market cost if candidates increasingly expect AI-fluency premiums baked into offers."}, {"headline": "Entry-level strength masks senior-level scarcity.", "body": "Tampa Bay's #2 national ranking for college graduate hiring reflects strong entry-level demand in financial services, but this pipeline strength does not offset the statewide erosion in financial activities headcount at more senior levels. Workforce planning should distinguish between healthy junior-level sourcing and a tightening market for experienced technical accounting talent."}], "local_conditions": "Tampa Bay's finance and insurance hiring diverges sharply from South Florida \u2014 where Miami-Dade posted 4% employment growth and 9.8% wage growth year-over-year \u2014 as Florida's statewide financial activities sector shed 14,300 positions, suggesting Tampa employers are competing for talent in a contracting statewide finance labor pool rather than an expanding one. Metro-wide wage growth of 5.14% to an average $66,671 outpaces the national rate but still trails the U.S. average by roughly $9,000, a gap that keeps Tampa attractive for cost-conscious relocation of finance functions even as local unemployment sits at 4.5%, above the 4.1% national rate.", "implications": "Statewide contraction in financial activities headcount, paired with Tampa's continued draw for entry-level talent in financial services, points to a bifurcated market: senior finance roles face a shrinking statewide candidate pool while entry-level pipelines remain comparatively strong, complicating succession and backfill planning for Controllers and FP&A leaders alike. With 74% of F&A leaders nationally planning permanent headcount increases but 61% reporting difficulty finding skilled professionals, Tampa organizations budgeting for close-cycle and audit-readiness staffing should expect longer time-to-fill for technical accounting and SEC-adjacent roles even as advertised pay for those roles holds stable locally. Consider reviewing whether flat advertised pay for Controller and FP&A Manager roles in Tampa is consistent with actual time-to-fill data, or whether budgeted ranges need adjustment to stay competitive against Miami-Dade's faster wage growth.", "looking_ahead": [{"category": "Worth watching", "body": "Florida's financial activities sector lost 14,300 jobs year-over-year even as Florida added 21,800 total jobs in August. Watch whether Tampa-specific finance headcount follows the statewide contraction or continues to track closer to Miami-Dade's growth pattern over the next reporting cycle."}, {"category": "Emerging pressure point", "body": "Tax Specialist and Credit Analyst advertised pay are both trending up with moderate-to-significant magnitude locally and nationally. Budget cycles for Q4 planning should account for these roles potentially outpacing previously stable comp bands by year-end."}, {"category": "Early indicator", "body": "Pinellas County posted the steepest year-over-year employment decline among Florida's 27 largest counties. Monitor whether this softening extends into Hillsborough County finance and professional services hiring, which would signal broader metro-level headcount pressure rather than a Pinellas-specific issue."}, {"category": "Potential inflection point", "body": "National F&A hiring managers report 69% offering salaries above planned range for business-critical roles. If this pattern reaches Tampa in Q4 budget cycles, Controllers may need to build contingency into approved compensation ranges rather than treating overages as one-off exceptions."}], "roles": [{"role": "Controller", "data_scope": "metro", "metro_p25": 91304.0, "metro_p50": 121681.0, "metro_p75": 130000.0, "metro_trend_direction": "stable", "metro_trend_magnitude": "stable", "national_p50": 112500.0, "national_trend_direction": "stable", "national_trend_magnitude": "stable"}, {"role": "Senior Accountant", "data_scope": "metro", "metro_p25": 78882.75, "metro_p50": 85000.0, "metro_p75": 90000.0, "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": 69236.0, "metro_p50": 77500.0, "metro_p75": 84918.25, "metro_trend_direction": "stable", "metro_trend_magnitude": "stable", "national_p50": 82905.0, "national_trend_direction": "stable", "national_trend_magnitude": "stable"}, {"role": "Billing Specialist", "data_scope": "metro", "metro_p25": 38488.75, "metro_p50": 49119.0, "metro_p75": 57901.0, "metro_trend_direction": "up", "metro_trend_magnitude": "moderate", "national_p50": 49700.0, "national_trend_direction": "up", "national_trend_magnitude": "moderate"}, {"role": "Tax Specialist", "data_scope": "metro", "metro_p25": 46388.0, "metro_p50": 62020.0, "metro_p75": 69680.0, "metro_trend_direction": "up", "metro_trend_magnitude": "significant", "national_p50": 66725.0, "national_trend_direction": "up", "national_trend_magnitude": "significant"}, {"role": "Credit Analyst", "data_scope": "metro", "metro_p25": 43826.0, "metro_p50": 70365.0, "metro_p75": 76376.5, "metro_trend_direction": "up", "metro_trend_magnitude": "moderate", "national_p50": 72000.0, "national_trend_direction": "up", "national_trend_magnitude": "moderate"}, {"role": "FP&A Manager", "data_scope": "metro", "metro_p25": 105471.0, "metro_p50": 121204.0, "metro_p75": 141226.0, "metro_trend_direction": "stable", "metro_trend_magnitude": "stable", "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": "tampa-st-petersburg-clearwater-fl/finance/2026-08.html", "pdf": "tampa-st-petersburg-clearwater-fl/finance/2026-08.pdf"}, "published_at": "2026-10-09T16:36:11.586082+00:00", "report_html_url": "https://reports.wagescape.com/archive/v1/editions/tampa-st-petersburg-clearwater-fl/finance/2026-08.html", "report_pdf_url": "https://reports.wagescape.com/archive/v1/editions/tampa-st-petersburg-clearwater-fl/finance/2026-08.pdf"}