Industry braces for current and looming accountant & CPA shortages. Seeks to address it

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The Accounting Profession Is in Crisis​

A Partial Solution to the Shortage of Accountants

Dec 2023
The accounting profession is facing a severe crisis due to a shortage of accountants. Significantly fewer students have selected accounting as a major. As a direct result of enrollment declines in accounting programs, candidates sitting for the CPA exam have also decreased from 48,004 first-time candidates in 2016 to 32,188 in 2021, a drop of 33%

. The AICPA/CIMA 2022 Annual Report reveals a 7% decrease from 2021 to 2022 for the total number of candidates taking the CPA exam. Also, 2022 saw the lowest number of exam takers since 2006.

Likewise, 30% fewer candidates passed their final section of the CPA exam in 2021 compared to 2016. Further compounding the problem, the AICPA has stated that roughly 75% of its members are at retirement age.

The AICPA 2021 “Trends Report” states: “Accounting graduates trended downward in the 2019–2020 academic year, with decreases of 2.8% and 8.4% at the bachelor’s and master’s levels, respectively

The pending enrollment cliff anticipated to start in 2025 will only further exacerbate the situation, as a decrease in birth rates results in a significant reduction in traditional college-age students

Various reasons have been provided to explain the shortage in accounting majors:

• The 150-hour requirement is seen as a barrier to entry.
• Accounting is perceived as boring.
• Compensation is lower than for other majors such as finance and technology.
• A lack of diversity seems apparent.
• The accounting major is perceived as too specialized.
• The cost of education is too high.
• Enrollments in higher education are declining.

Also mentioned on the above list is that starting salaries for other fields, such as finance and technology, are often at least 20% higher than starting salaries of accountants, and these areas don’t typically have such arduous entry requirements.

The authors expect that as the number of entry-level accountants declines and the demand remains strong, the economics of supply and demand should eventually drive up the starting salaries of accountants

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The 150-Hour Requirement​

The primary focus of this article is how to address the 150-hour requirement as a factor in the declining interest in accounting
(Rest of long article)

The Accounting Profession Is in Crisis - The CPA Journal

The accounting profession is facing a severe crisis due to a shortage of accountants. Significantly fewer students have selected accounting as a major. As

www.cpajournal.com

 

[Bubba T]

150 hours to become licensed is stupid. You already need 1 year experience and need to pass a 4 part exam that historically has a ~50% pass rate. All to have a crappy ass salary the first 3-5 years of your career.

Instead of adequately addressing the shortage (adjust the education requirements and raise salaries), the profession starts looking at outsourcing work to India/the Philippines , trying to get people over there certified, so they can even pay them even less (salaries in India are ~26k a year).

Not to mention that the subject of accounting can be boring as fukk with the most draconian requirements. It's a crapshoot.

 

[Spence]

150 hours to become licensed is stupid. You already need 1 year experience and need to pass a 4 part exam that historically has a ~50% pass rate. All to have a crappy ass salary the first 3-5 years of your career.

Instead of adequately addressing the shortage (adjust the education requirements and raise salaries), the profession starts looking at outsourcing work to India/the Philippines , trying to get people over there certified, so they can even pay them even less (salaries in India are ~26k a year).

Not to mention that the subject of accounting can be boring as fukk with the most draconian requirements. It's a crapshoot.

The only saving grace for tax accountants is that the IRS has a tax code for foreigners preparing taxes outside of the country (it’s illegal) can be removed to loosen up requirements. That happens and it’s a wrap for US based accountants

 

[Depreciating Asset]

Become an accountant as AI about to crush the buildings brehs

 

[Bubba T]

The only saving grace for tax accountants is that the IRS has a tax code for foreigners preparing taxes outside of the country (it’s illegal) can be removed to loosen up requirements. That happens and it’s a wrap for US based accountants

Tax work can and is being shifted overseas. The caveat is that a US based firm has to sign off on it. However, the bytch work (erhm, the detail work) can be performed by people outside the United States. There are companies/clients that cannot have their work outsourced (virtually anything to do with US government or that has government contracts), but that isn't everybody.

 

[get these nets]

Thanks for the replies and info.

So" if you had a son/niece/younger cousin who wanted to be an accountant, what piece of advice would you give them or would you discourage them from the profession?

Reading the full article, I sense that there's an opportunity to be seized.