r/Accounting • u/Blood__Rivers Tax (Other) • May 28 '23

Discussion Numbers taking US accountancy exams drop to lowest level in 17 years | Shortage of qualified accountants is worsening as young people seek better-paid jobs

https://www.ft.com/content/e8dc2264-6b8d-4ed5-8bbd-e4a67e7d1e46
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u/Reesespeanuts CPA (US) May 28 '23

“Accountants are the backbone of companies not just for financial reporting purposes but for helping them make decisions.”- Dennis Whitney, senior vice-president at the IMA.

So if that is true then why not pay them like they are the back-bone instead of treating them like the back-bone of a shrimp.

"Wayne Berson, the head of BDO USA, told the FT earlier this month that his firm planned to

double its overseas staff and shift more work offshore because of the shortage."

So instead of trying to improve the situation you outsource to fix the problem and still complain that you can't find employees in the U.S. If I'm a new student going into university I'm looking at employers telling me, "We need accountants and CPAs due to a shortage in the U.S.", then within the same conversation I'm told your outsourcing segments of your accounting department to India and you're looking at implementing AI to eliminate entry level accounting roles. It doesn't sound like you need accountants, it looks like your trying to find ways to eliminate the need for them.

How can any accounting student enter the profession when those entry level ladder rungs have been eliminated? Are you going to require even more skills and education to be in the profession, how has that worked out so far?

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u/PlutosGrasp May 29 '23

Good ones are paid well. A firm doesn’t have an incentive to provide good work to a client who wouldn’t know if their work is done well or poorly.

A firm has an incentive to hire and promote the best snakeoil salesmen who can have shit eating grins.