FINANCE/ACCOUNTING
CAREERS
Hiring of Accounting and Finance Professionals Picking Up
The already-positive hiring market for accounting and finance professionals is becoming even brighter for those in in-demand specialties. Individuals looking for new positions will find more opportunities to choose from and more flexibility in compensation. According to Robert Half International and CareerBuilder.com’s 2006 Employment Dynamics and Growth Expectations (EDGE) Report, hiring managers are facing more difficulty finding qualified applicants and becoming more reconciled to increasing starting salaries to attract them. Further reflecting the increased leverage highly skilled candidates possess, salaries in accounting and finance are expected to rise an average of 3.8 percent in the coming year, according to the 2007 Salary Guide from Robert Half International.
Factors contributing to a strong market
In part, this increase in opportunities is fueled by the pressure of greater workloads in finance and accounting departments. Since the Sarbanes-Oxley Act was passed in 2002, both publicly held companies and their auditing firms have seen workloads mushroom. Furthermore, greater emphasis on corporate governance has made companies more skittish about the possibility of financial crimes such as embezzlement and securities fraud. This atmosphere has produced a demand for forensic accountants to ferret out illegal activity before it causes the company irreparable harm.
Business expansion is perhaps the primary reason companies are adding to their accounting and finance staff. Globalization of the marketplace has generated a need in many companies for accounting expertise to handle international trade and cross-border mergers and acquisitions. As a result, more professionals will be needed to handle this growth, both in the U.S. and abroad.
Where the opportunities are
The United States Department of Labor expects employment of accountants and auditors to grow faster than the average for all occupations for the next several years. More immediately, hiring is projected to remain steady in the fourth quarter of 2006, according to the most recent Robert Half International Financial Hiring Index. The survey found the hottest industries include transportation and finance, insurance and real estate.
In the U.S., the Pacific region1 is showing the strongest growth in opportunities, with above-average hiring activity also predicted for the Mountain states2. Individual metropolitan areas projecting a strong hiring environment include Miami/Fort Lauderdale and Houston, where a net 8 percent of CFOs in each market expect to add staff in the fourth quarter. A net 7 percent of financial executives in Dallas/Fort Worth, Phoenix, and Washington, D.C., plan to hire.
A shrinking labor pool leads to greater demand
While these reports are good news for job seekers, hiring managers are finding a smaller pool of qualified individuals to choose from. During the 1990s, the number of students receiving accounting degrees declined. Although that trend has reversed in recent years, new graduates will need time to gain the necessary experience to fill current workforce gaps.
The dearth of applicants also stems from demographic trends. The large baby boomer generation is poised to retire, and the younger generations taking its place are much smaller in numbers. A shortage of skilled accounting and finance professionals is certain to continue, causing increased competition for talented new hires.
In response, many companies report plans to increase starting salaries to attract more applicants. Hiring managers who find a candidate with exactly the skills required are making offers at the high end of the salary range. Even signing bonuses are starting to appear again.
This trend puts candidates in the enviable position of being able to choose from among several offers. Furthermore, the hiring cycle has shortened over the past few years for individuals in the hottest specialties. To avoid losing top talent to competitors, some companies are making offers within days of finding a strong candidate.
Staff level positions are proving to be the hardest to fill. According to the EDGE Report, 37 percent of hiring managers face challenges in finding staff applicants, and 36 percent report the greatest willingness to increase compensation for these positions. Director, manager and team leader positions also present difficulties.
In addition to boosting their efforts to look for new employees, managers are turning their attention to retaining the ones they already have. Signaling that workers are aware of a better job market, 21 percent of hiring managers report higher turnover than a year ago. The same percentage state they expect high turnover to continue a year from now. To keep their valuable, experienced employees, companies are revamping pay scales, considering better benefits packages and offering more flexible schedules.
Skills employers value
One of the key strengths managers are looking for in job candidates is strong communication abilities. Seventy-five percent of CFOs polled by Robert Half International said verbal, written and interpersonal skills are more important today than they were five years ago. Because of increasing globalization, today’s finance professionals find themselves interacting with colleagues on other continents as well as in other cities. That is prompting employers to seek candidates with a global perspective and an understanding of other cultures.
Businesses seek candidates with strong technical skills. As compliance processes are increasingly automated, companies will be looking for people who can work with information technology (IT) colleagues to develop internal control systems. In addition, as eXtensible Business Reporting Language (XBRL) becomes more common, companies value an understanding of this means of tagging financial information. Proficiency with advanced spreadsheet applications, expertise in enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems and experience with data warehousing are highly sought as well.
All in all, accounting and finance professionals with the right qualifications and skills face a strong employment market that should continue for the foreseeable future.
1Alaska, California, Hawaii, Oregon, Washington
2Arizona, Colorado, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, Utah, Wyoming
Founded in 1948, Robert Half Finance & Accounting, a division of Robert Half International Inc., is first and largest specialized financial recruiting service. The company has more than 360 offices worldwide. Search for jobs now or learn more at www.roberthalf.com.
