{"schema_version": 1, "id": "youngstown-warren-boardman-oh-pa-msa/finance/2026-08", "product": "Labor Market Pulse", "metro": {"geography_id": 542, "label": "Youngstown-Warren-Boardman, OH-PA MSA", "slug": "youngstown-warren-boardman-oh-pa-msa"}, "focus_area": {"key": "finance", "slug": "finance", "label": "Finance"}, "period": "2026-08", "public_after": "2026-08-01", "frozen_at": "2026-10-09T16:27:46.120460+00:00", "headline": "Youngstown finance talent tightens as labor force shrinks, not unemployment.", "headline_summary": "Mahoning County unemployment rose to 5.0% in August even as Ohio's labor force shrank by 95,000 year over year, while Senior Accountant advertised pay fell to $75,269 against a $87,731 national median.", "key_indicators": [{"label": "Mahoning County unemployment", "value": "5.0%", "context": "Up from 4.6% in July, down from 5.1% year ago"}, {"label": "Ohio financial activities employment", "value": "-1,400", "context": "August monthly decline, ODJFS data"}, {"label": "Metro avg hourly wage", "value": "$26.03", "context": "vs $33.54 national average (May 2025 BLS)"}, {"label": "Ohio labor force change", "value": "-95,000", "context": "Year over year, 10th-largest US decline"}], "takeaways": [{"headline": "Senior Accountant pay is falling locally while demand isn't.", "body": "Metro median advertised pay for Senior Accountant dropped significantly to $75,269, well below the $87,731 national median, even as Ohio F&A leaders report finding skilled professionals harder than a year ago. A widening pay gap against national rates may be masking a role at risk of losing candidates to remote or out-of-metro offers rather than reflecting genuine local demand softening."}, {"headline": "Credit Analyst and Tax Specialist pay is moving up together.", "body": "Both roles show significant upward movement locally \u2014 Credit Analyst to $67,188 and Tax Specialist to $54,034 \u2014 suggesting employers are competing harder for compliance and risk-adjacent finance talent even as broader headcount growth slows. Budget cycles built on flat compensation assumptions for these roles likely understate true market cost."}, {"headline": "FP&A Manager pay strength points to forecasting talent as a premium line.", "body": "Metro FP&A Manager pay rose moderately to $125,017, nearly matching the $127,341 national figure \u2014 unusual given the metro's persistent wage gap in most other finance roles. Consistent with national data showing AI-skilled forecasting talent commanding real premiums, this narrowing gap suggests FP&A capacity is being priced as a strategic hire, not a backfill."}, {"headline": "Ohio's shrinking labor force is a budget-cycle problem, not a headline number.", "body": "Ohio's labor force is down 95,000 from a year ago, even as the state unemployment rate fell \u2014 meaning fewer people are competing for finance roles, not more. Headcount cost models anchored to easing unemployment may understate retention pressure building beneath the surface."}], "local_conditions": "Mahoning and Trumbull County unemployment rose to 5.0% and 5.1% respectively in August, up from July, even as both counties remain below year-ago levels \u2014 a sign of a labor force still contracting faster than job losses accumulate. Financial activities employment fell statewide by 1,400 in August, compounding a metro where hourly wages already trail the national average by nearly $7.50, tightening the pool of experienced finance talent available to local employers.", "implications": "Rising county unemployment paired with a shrinking labor force is not the same signal \u2014 Youngstown employers face fewer available workers even as headline joblessness ticks up, meaning open finance requisitions may sit longer regardless of unemployment optics. Statewide financial activities contraction, combined with Ohio's F&A hiring managers reporting sharply higher difficulty filling skilled roles, suggests close-cycle and audit-support staffing plans built on prior-year fill rates need revisiting. Consider reviewing headcount contingency plans for controller and senior accountant functions against a longer time-to-fill assumption than 2025 budgets anticipated.", "looking_ahead": [{"category": "Worth watching", "body": "Mahoning and Trumbull unemployment both rose for a second consecutive month in August. Watch whether September data shows this stabilizing or extending, which would signal broader demand softening beyond financial activities."}, {"category": "Emerging pressure point", "body": "Ohio financial activities employment declined 1,400 in August against a Cleveland market seeing gains in finance and insurance hiring. Multi-location Finance functions should watch whether talent migrates toward Cleveland's stronger conditions, thinning the Youngstown candidate pool further."}, {"category": "Potential inflection point", "body": "Regional employment is projected to contract at 1.76% annually over six months, among the steepest declines of Ohio's largest metros, even as Kimberly-Clark, Foxconn and Vallourec expansions continue locally. Watch whether these employer commitments materialize into finance-adjacent hiring or remain concentrated in production roles."}, {"category": "Early indicator", "body": "Senior Accountant advertised pay has diverged sharply from national levels this month. Track whether this gap narrows over the next two cycles or whether it signals a structural retention risk requiring off-cycle adjustment."}], "roles": [{"role": "Controller", "data_scope": "metro", "metro_p25": 103354.0, "metro_p50": 112841.4, "metro_p75": 123500.0, "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": 65847.5, "metro_p50": 75268.8, "metro_p75": 82500.0, "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": 45897.5, "metro_p50": 67856.4, "metro_p75": 72219.0, "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": 33055.0, "metro_p50": 34711.0, "metro_p75": 37916.25, "metro_trend_direction": "stable", "metro_trend_magnitude": "stable", "national_p50": 49700.0, "national_trend_direction": "up", "national_trend_magnitude": "moderate"}, {"role": "Tax Specialist", "data_scope": "metro", "metro_p25": 33544.5, "metro_p50": 54033.8, "metro_p75": 56850.0, "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": "state_rollup", "metro_p25": 53862.75, "metro_p50": 67188.0, "metro_p75": 77406.0, "metro_trend_direction": "up", "metro_trend_magnitude": "significant", "national_p50": 72000.0, "national_trend_direction": "up", "national_trend_magnitude": "moderate"}, {"role": "FP&A Manager", "data_scope": "state_rollup", "metro_p25": 100081.0, "metro_p50": 125016.8, "metro_p75": 131583.0, "metro_trend_direction": "up", "metro_trend_magnitude": "moderate", "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": "youngstown-warren-boardman-oh-pa-msa/finance/2026-08.html", "pdf": "youngstown-warren-boardman-oh-pa-msa/finance/2026-08.pdf"}, "published_at": "2026-10-09T16:36:40.765281+00:00", "report_html_url": "https://reports.wagescape.com/archive/v1/editions/youngstown-warren-boardman-oh-pa-msa/finance/2026-08.html", "report_pdf_url": "https://reports.wagescape.com/archive/v1/editions/youngstown-warren-boardman-oh-pa-msa/finance/2026-08.pdf"}