Demand For Accountants On The Rise
Reprinted with permission of The Tampa Tribune.
The number of college students enrolling in accounting programs has increased within the past year.
By Dave Simanoff, The Tampa Tribune
TAMPA - Conventional wisdom said demand for accountants and auditors would have tapered off by now.
Well, conventional wisdom was wrong.
Staffing agencies such as Robert Half International, which specializes
in pairing employers with accountants, say demand for talented,
skilled professionals in the Tampa Bay area and around the country
continues to rise, and salaries are growing.
The Wall Street Journal reports the Big Four accounting firms -
PricewaterhouseCoopers, Deloitte & Touche, Ernst & Young
and KPMG - will hire as many or more interns in 2008 as they did
in 2007, bucking the downsizing trend at other major employers.
Meanwhile, enrollment in the University of South Florida accounting
program grows each year. And the industry is evolving rapidly, attracting
new interest as it branches into such fields as information technology
and forensics.
It wasn't supposed to be this way.
Most people had predicted only a temporary surge in the demand for
accountants and auditors after 2002 - that is, after Congress passed
the Public Company Accounting Reform and Investor Protection Act,
nicknamed the Sarbanes-Oxley Act after its two legislative sponsors.
Sarbanes-Oxley was Washington's response to the accounting scandals
that erupted at Enron, WorldCom and a handful of other companies
in 2001 and 2002, and it created a host of new regulations and standards
for public companies and accounting firms.
Many people thought companies would hire accountants and consultants
to meet the new Sarbanes-Oxley requirements, and then demand would
drop off, akin to what happened when technology and information
firms ramped up their staffs to prepare for Y2K in the late 1990s,
according to Dan DeNisco, senior regional manager in Tampa for Robert
Half International.
"But this hasn't been like Y2K," he said.
Accountants More Involved In Businesses
Because of Sarbanes-Oxley, many companies have been reminded of
the importance of good accounting and financial controls, DeNisco
said. Company leaders have seen that a good accountant can help
companies become more competitive and set strategies for the future,
he said. Even private companies that haven't been affected by Sarbanes-Oxley
are putting more emphasis on accounting because they understand
the benefits more fully now, he said.
"Accounting has shifted from a cost center to a strategic part
of the company planning and leadership team," he said. "It's
created an awareness."
Instead of scaring young people away from the profession, the scandals
earlier this decade may have helped recruit new accountants.
"In kind of a weird way, the bad news got more students interested," said
Chuck Landes, vice president of the Professional Standards Group
for the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants.
"They saw it as a way to do something positive, not just for
themselves, but for the public."
Landes said the group doesn't have any figures available that show
a rise in the number of CPAs, but accounting program enrollment
has grown locally.
At the University of South Florida, undergraduate enrollment in
the College of Business Administration's accounting program has
jumped 30 percent from 503 students in 2002 to 655 students in 2007.
Stephanie Bryant, director of the School of Accountancy, said the
program has grown from 19 full-time professors to 23 full-time professors
during the past five years to handle the expansion. Still, enrollment
in the accounting program is "constrained" at USF, she
said - there isn't enough capacity to accommodate all the students
interested in accounting classes.
"The students get it - they see this is a very different job
today, with many different avenues of specialty," Bryant said. "Kids
today want to be challenged, and they want to do interesting stuff."
Many students receive job offers a year or two before they graduate,
Bryant said.
More Than Number-Crunching
One of the hottest topics for students is forensic accounting, in
which accountants use their skills to unravel white-collar crimes.
Erika Jennison, a USF student from Bradenton who graduates this
fall, said she's planning to take her accounting degree into the
field of criminal investigations.
"I grew up in a military family," she explained. "Integrity,
morals and serving my country - that's what's important."
Fellow student Colin Bock of Tampa will graduate next spring. He
had no intention of studying accounting until he took his first
class.
"I kind of just fell into it," he said. "I was undecided
for so long, and they said you have to pick a major."
Bock plans to pursue a career in the auditing and tax field.
Student Ashley Thomas of Palm Beach gravitated toward accounting
after her first choice for a major didn't work out. She will graduate
in August.
"Me and chemistry weren't friends, so I did a lot of research
and transferred here," she said. Compared to science, accounting
has been "great - and hard," she said.
All three USF students say their job outlook is bright.
Landes said he thinks the job market will remain strong for accountants
for the foreseeable future.
"I would have no reservation in telling a high school student
today that there will still be plenty of jobs in accounting four
or five years down the road," he said.
DeNisco, the Robert Half executive, says health care, hospitality
and financial services are strong industries for accounting professionals.
Demand for accountants in the housing industry is weak, due to the
downturn in the residential real estate industry, he said.
Today's accountants are taught more than number-crunching skills
in school, USF's Bryant said. Students also learn about ethics,
communications and team building, she said.
"I think there's definitely a move to have students think critically," she
said.
Those skills are important, because more chief executive officers
are coming from the ranks of accounting than from any other profession,
she said.
"It's definitely a good time to be an accounting student," she
said.
Reporter Dave Simanoff can be reached at dsimanoff@tampatrib.com
or (813) 259-7762.