Accountants Go Where It's Greener

(Rasmussen image)

Last year the WSJ noted that accountants were finally getting their due: [bold added]

A deepening shortage of accountants is driving a growing number of companies to raise salaries or seek temporary help to strengthen their finance teams amid a slowing economy

But companies aren't moving fast enough to reverse the exodus.

More than 300,000 U.S. accountants and auditors have left their jobs in the past two years, a 17% decline, and the dwindling number of college students coming into the field can’t fill the gap...

The huge gap between companies that need accountants and trained professionals has led to salary bumps and more temporary workers joining the sector. Still, neither development will fix the fundamental talent pipeline problem: Many college students don’t want to work in accounting. Even those who majored in it.

Accountancy requires hard work, long hours, attention to detail, and skill with numbers. People who have the ability and motivation to succeed in the field can earn more in other professions while working normal hours. (Son, let me tell you about the New Year's Eve I had to take inventory in a warehouse in the middle of nowhere...)

Conditions have improved since I was a junior auditor back in the 1970's, but apparently not that much.