Jobs Outlook: Strong and Steady Growth in Hiring and Earnings for U.S. Accountants
But no cure for staffing shortage as profession shifts into a new era.
CPA Trendlines Research
Cornerstone Study
salary
Three Ways to Thrive with Limited Capacity
Turn the staffing shortage into a new opportunity.
By Frank Stiteley
The Relentless CPA
Charles Dickens had to be writing about the accounting profession when he wrote, “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times.”
Clients are plentiful. I met a new client coming out of the restroom at our office complex. We get four to five inquiries a day – out of tax season. During tax season, we turned down four out of five prospective clients.
MORE ON STAFFING: Tax and Accounting Jobs and Salaries Show Strength | Olympics of Outsourcing and Offshoring for Accountants | New Study: Strong and Steady Growth for Accountant Jobs and Salaries | Can’t Recruit? Retain! | Is Tech Causing Both CPA Shortage and Low Salaries? | Staffing Tops List of Woes at CPA Firms | To Replenish the Talent Pipeline, Go Back to the Classroom | Whole Person Retention: When It’s Not Just the Money | More Big Firms Shut Their Doors to New College Grads | Seven Enticements to Keep Talent On Board | Employee Retention Is Easier Than Attraction | Let Interns Fix the Staffing Shortage? | Disruptors: Talent Crisis? What Talent Crisis? | Firms Culling Clients as Staffing Woes Persist
Exclusively for PRO Members. Log in here or upgrade to PRO today.
Staff are not plentiful – at least not good ones. I’m getting two or three resumes a day, but they’re the warm body sort most of us learned the hard way not to hire during the pandemic. You’ve seen these resumes too. They are people with six employers in eight years. You are certain to be number seven in nine years. They claim eight years of experience, but you can see from their job history that it’s really two years of experience repeated four times. And – they want $100K for those two years of real experience.
Tax and Accounting Jobs and Salaries Show Strength
Hourly earnings fluctuate.
By Beth Bellor
CPA Trendlines Research
Despite a slowing increase in employment for the U.S. economy in general, the nation’s tax and accounting sector is improving on most fronts, marking more than four years of solid year-over-year gains.
MORE: New Study: Strong and Steady Growth for Accountant Jobs and Salaries | More Big Firms Shut Their Doors to New College Grads | Seven Enticements to Keep Talent On Board | Payroll Leads Job Gains in Tax & Accounting Sector
Exclusively for PRO Members. Log in here or upgrade to PRO today.
To be sure, tax and accounting employment nudged slightly down in July, according to the latest data available to CPA Trendlines Research. But it remains ahead of last year’s figures. And record highs are popping in key hiring segments, including staff, CPA firms and payroll services. Is talk of staffing shortages overblown, or would growth be even stronger if more qualified candidates were available? READ MORE →
Is Tech Causing Both CPA Shortage and Low Salaries?
There’s a paradox going on.
By CPA Trendlines Research
A working paper by three academics presents a paradoxical contradiction in the accounting industry. Somehow, technology, which is starting to replace some accounting functions, is causing a shortage of accounting professionals. And despite the high demand for the few graduates who major in accounting, starting salaries are lower than in related professions.
MORE: Audit Firms Nervous about New Tech | What Accountants Can Learn from T-Ball | Staffing Tops List of Woes at CPA Firms | To Replenish the Talent Pipeline, Go Back to the Classroom | Beware the Work-Life/Workload Doom Spiral | Why the Dry Pipeline? It’s About Time | Business Model Transformation: Do It or Die | Misperceptions, Corrections, Accountancy and Lemonade | Whole Person Retention: When It’s Not Just the Money | Global Trends Show Many Dissatisfied CPAs | More Big Firms Shut Their Doors to New College Grads
Exclusively for PRO Members. Log in here or upgrade to PRO today.
And in a related paradox, technology’s most powerful tools may be augmenting the accountant’s workload.
How can all this be concurrent?
READ MORE →
How Firms Are Compensating Their COOs
Real-life examples. About 29% are owners.
By Kristen Rampe
Rosenberg Associates
More and more firms are exploring the benefits of adding a chief operating officer (COO) to their leadership ranks. The COO role often encompasses strategic CPA firm leadership, holding partners accountable, making decisions in line with the firm’s strategy and overseeing all administrative functions.
MORE: Help! A Partner Wants to Retire Really Early
Exclusively for PRO Members. Log in here or upgrade to PRO today.
This position can significantly reduce the time client service partners spend attending to these duties. And often the COO can do them better, as they aren’t distracted by the next fire drill from a high-profile accounting client. Their only client is the firm.
READ MORE →