{"schema_version": 1, "id": "wenatchee-wa-msa/finance/2026-09", "product": "Labor Market Pulse", "metro": {"geography_id": 534, "label": "Wenatchee, WA MSA", "slug": "wenatchee-wa-msa"}, "focus_area": {"key": "finance", "slug": "finance", "label": "Finance"}, "period": "2026-09", "public_after": "2026-09-01", "frozen_at": "2026-10-09T13:30:51.974456+00:00", "headline": "Wenatchee finance pay climbs as national sector contracts.", "headline_summary": "FP&A Manager pay hit $132,728 locally \u2014 above the $128,139 national figure \u2014 even as financial activities nationally shed 7,000 jobs in September and Chelan County unemployment held at a seasonal 3.0%.", "key_indicators": [{"label": "Chelan County unemployment", "value": "3.0%", "context": "July 2026, down from 3.6% in June (seasonal)"}, {"label": "National financial activities jobs lost", "value": "129,000", "context": "Since May 2025, concentrated in insurance carriers"}, {"label": "FP&A Manager advertised pay", "value": "$132,728", "context": "Metro exceeds $128,139 national median"}, {"label": "F&A hiring sentiment", "value": "74%", "context": "Leaders planning permanent headcount increases, H2 2026"}], "takeaways": [{"headline": "Local finance pay is diverging sharply from the national slowdown.", "body": "Controller pay is up significantly in Wenatchee even as the national financial activities sector sheds jobs for a sixteenth straight month. A metro labor pool this small reacts to local scarcity signals, not sector-wide headlines \u2014 benchmark against the local market, not national softening."}, {"headline": "FP&A Manager demand looks like a leadership gap, not a cyclical blip.", "body": "Advertised pay for FP&A Manager sits at $132,728 locally versus $128,139 nationally, an inversion that rarely happens in this metro. Combined with Chelan County's hiring freeze pulling experienced finance staff out of the public sector, this points to a structural shortage of planning and analysis leadership worth tracking through Q4."}, {"headline": "Billing Specialist pay is falling locally while rising nationally.", "body": "Metro advertised pay for Billing Specialist dropped moderately even as the national figure climbed, suggesting softer local demand for transactional back-office roles even as leadership and analytical roles tighten. Watch this gap as a signal of where Wenatchee employers are concentrating hiring budgets."}, {"headline": "County hiring freeze is quietly reshaping the private finance talent pool.", "body": "Chelan County's freeze on regular full-time and part-time hires, paired with a 400-job government payroll decline in July, is pushing experienced public-sector finance talent toward private employers. Organizations should evaluate whether this creates a near-term sourcing opportunity for Senior Accountant and Tax Specialist roles."}], "local_conditions": "Chelan County's unemployment rate fell to 3.0% in July 2026 from 3.6% in June, a seasonal summer pattern driven by agriculture and tourism hiring that masks a 48,800-job base that hasn't grown month over month. Chelan County's hiring freeze through 2026, combined with a 400-job government payroll decline in July, is tightening public-sector labor supply even as private employers compete for the same limited pool of finance and administrative talent.", "implications": "National financial activities payrolls have now contracted for sixteen straight months \u2014 losing 129,000 jobs since May 2025, concentrated in insurance carriers \u2014 while 74% of F&A leaders nationally still plan to grow permanent headcount, a contradiction that plays out locally as scarcity in a small labor market rather than surplus. Chelan County's government hiring freeze removes a typical counter-cyclical absorber for displaced finance talent, meaning Controller and FP&A Manager roles \u2014 both up significantly in advertised pay locally \u2014 are likely to stay hard to fill through year-end. Consider reviewing whether current requisitions for finance leadership roles reflect the metro's structural scarcity rather than national softening, which may be inflating expectations of easier sourcing.", "looking_ahead": [{"category": "Expected", "body": "Washington's L&I announces the 2027 minimum wage rate September 30, with exempt salary thresholds already set to rise toward 2.5x minimum wage by 2028. FP&A teams should model 2027 payroll costs now rather than waiting for the formal close cycle."}, {"category": "Worth watching", "body": "Chelan County's hiring freeze runs through year-end 2026; watch whether it extends into 2027 budget planning, which would further constrain the local talent pool Finance departments draw from for accounting and analyst roles."}, {"category": "Emerging pressure point", "body": "National F&A hiring indices show a 2026 Talent Shortage Index of 77%, reversing a 2025 surplus of 108% \u2014 a swing severe enough that even a small metro like Wenatchee should expect increased competition for CPA-track talent from larger regional employers."}, {"category": "Early indicator", "body": "Washington State shed 2,000 jobs in August and unemployment ticked up to 4.7% statewide, a softening that has not yet reached Chelan County's seasonal low. Monitor whether statewide cooling reaches the local market as agricultural hiring winds down this fall."}], "roles": [{"role": "Controller", "data_scope": "metro", "metro_p25": 51745.0, "metro_p50": 104019.2, "metro_p75": 119423.5, "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": 84810.0, "metro_p50": 88063.0, "metro_p75": 95297.0, "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": 78194.0, "metro_p50": 100204.0, "metro_p75": 108871.0, "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": 40463.0, "metro_p50": 54080.0, "metro_p75": 67500.0, "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": 56323.25, "metro_p50": 79200.0, "metro_p75": 93666.0, "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": "metro", "metro_p25": 57897.0, "metro_p50": 73000.0, "metro_p75": 83417.0, "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": "metro", "metro_p25": 109236.0, "metro_p50": 132728.0, "metro_p75": 137016.0, "metro_trend_direction": "up", "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": "wenatchee-wa-msa/finance/2026-09.html", "pdf": "wenatchee-wa-msa/finance/2026-09.pdf"}, "published_at": "2026-10-09T14:37:50.752964+00:00", "report_html_url": "https://reports.wagescape.com/archive/v1/editions/wenatchee-wa-msa/finance/2026-09.html", "report_pdf_url": "https://reports.wagescape.com/archive/v1/editions/wenatchee-wa-msa/finance/2026-09.pdf"}