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The accountant shortage has given workers more bargaining power to secure better conditions, public accountant recruitment specialist Christine Foggiato says.
Accounting shortage opens up ‘dream job’ opportunities for accountants
08 May 2025
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8 minute read
The public practice accounting industry has faced a decades-long talent shortage, which has worsened in the aftermath of the pandemic, recruiter Christine Foggiato told Accountants Daily.
“There has actually been a public practice accounting shortage for at least 30 years,” she said.
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“[Post-covid], the candidate shortage went from huge to extreme. It got to the point where accounting firms were simply unable to hire, you know, they would have jobs open for six to 12 months and simply just relied on getting really good people coming across from other firms and ensuring that their branding was really good.”
The ABS has forecast that Australia would require 338,362 accountants by 2026 – almost 10,000 extra per year. At the same time, accounting body CPA Australia said the number of students completing bachelor-level and above programs in accounting had almost halved in the decade to 2020 to just 2,278 a year.
To broaden their talent pools, firms have offered prospective employees perks such as greater flexibility in a bid to attract workers who couldn’t commute to the city five days a week.
“A lot of my clients are hiring remote accountants who live in regional areas of Australia, or they are hiring people that need a level of flexibility that traditionally they might have said no to,” Foggiato said.
“Most of the accounting firms are happy for [employees] to work from home two days a week again. That is just expanding their talent pool, because it means that they can now hire people that don’t necessarily want to commute to the city five days a week.”
She said that companies were realising that employees valued flexibility and top 10 firms were increasingly accommodating part-time schedules that they may not have traditionally permitted, such as a manager who worked four days a week.
One common misconception – that public practice accountants worked long hours – was now largely a thing of the past, Foggiato said.
“One of the biggest misconceptions is the long hours. In the past, I think it was quite normal for accountants and accounting firms to work a minimum of 45 or 50 hours a week. But these days, in small firms, that’s almost nonexistent,” she said.
“In the smaller and mid tier firms, they’ve got enough staff to ensure that no one is doing overtime. And in the large firms, over the past four or five years, they have done everything in their power to lower the amount of overtime. And I would say, on average, staff are working less than 40 hours per week.”
Foggiato said that jobseekers had significant bargaining power as firms competed for talent in a tight candidate pool. Accountants had the power to be picky with their job choices and choose roles that fit well into their lifestyles.
“[Job-seekers] have their choice. If someone said to me, I want a job that is a five minute drive from home. I want this salary, I want to work on this type of client and I want to work on this software, chances are I’m able to get them that, because of how candidate-tight the market is, and because of how many jobs there are,” she said.
“It’s a fantastic time for accountants to get their dream job.”
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