Demand For Accountants On The Rise

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.