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The upcoming job summit needs to address a shortfall of accountants running into thousands a year, says CPA Australia.
Sky-high demand for staff ‘the number one problem’
19 August 2022
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6 minute read
Sky-high demand for staff is the number one concern of public practitioners and the jobs summit next month is a “once in a generation opportunity to identify real solutions”, CPA Australia said.
ABS data showing the unemployment rate fell to 3.4 per cent last month simply reinforced the fact that “thousands” of accountants were needed to make up the shortfall, CPA Australia general manager media and content Dr Jane Rennie said.
“Today’s labour force figures reveal the lowest jobless rate in almost 50 years,” she said. “There are now fewer unemployed workers than there are job vacancies in Australia. Many businesses simply cannot fill vacant roles. This is a real concern for productivity and the national economy.”
The July result arrived months ahead of RBA expectations that 3.4 per cent would be the jobless rate reached by the end of the year.
Dr Rennie said the fact it was still falling was a significant challenge for businesses, with accountancy among the worst hit.
“There is sky-high demand for accountants in Australia,” she said. “Vacant job listings for accounting professionals are up 34 per cent year-on-year. Thousands more accountants are needed each year to make up the current shortfall.”
The Jobs and Skills Summit next month, which will be attended by fellow professional body CA ANZ, was an unrivalled chance to tackle the problem, she said.
“The jobs summit is a once-in-a-generation opportunity to identify real solutions to the skills shortage. We’re hoping to see a plan that both upskills local workers and attracts talent to Australia.”
Director of Melbourne-based Future Advisory, Jason Robinson, said difficulty recruiting staff was unquestionnably the number one issue for accountants with vacancies across the board for admin, bookkeeping and accounting.
He said there were plenty of applications but a mismatch with the roles required.
“I thought getting grads coming through the ranks was going to be an issue with the attraction of the accounting industry, but there’s quite a few coming through and they’re eager, they’re hungry to get into practice and start their careers,” he said on a recent CPA Australia podcast.
“The ones that we’re really seeing as the issue … is the intermediates and seniors.
“With the great resignation, everyone was expecting a whole lot of people to jump ship and move firms. But it just doesn’t seem to be like that at the moment. In our experience, the intermediates and seniors, there’s a huge shortage.”
Emerging from the pandemic had resulted in a lot of recovery work, cash flow forecasts and helping businesses survive the challenging economic conditions, he said.
“So you generally need those more experienced team members who are going to be comfortable having those conversations. That’s definitely where the biggest shortage is in that intermediate to senior area,” he said.
His mid-sized firm, with a team of 29, had witnessed staff being lured away by bigger companies with deeper pockets and was thinking hard about ways to retain employees.
“We’re just like much smaller firms – we’ve lost team members to bigger firms with bigger pay checks,” he said. “We need to go beyond just what we can offer in a paycheck and need to look at what are those extra work perks that we have.
“It’s definitely very, very tough for practitioners to stack up against some of the other firms that have deeper pockets.
“I can’t see it becoming immediately resolved. We’re at an all time low for unemployment and that just means there isn’t that volume of people that are looking for new jobs and going to jump into a career in public practice.”
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- I'm a foreigner, so how can I apply for this job as an accountant?0
- I've been an accountant for over five and half years. I've recently started checking the job market to see what the market is paying for accountants. If I can go on Seek and find an entry-level job just up the street from where I live that pays more per hour than I earn, then I'm starting to wonder why I racked up such a large HECs debt, spent three years working towards my CPA. Accounting isn't worth it, unless you can rely on nepotism. Find another career.1
- Accountants are not paid well, tradies earn more than an accountant.1
- If you don't go beyond with the paycheck you will continue to lose out small firms.0
- Lack of competent staff and motivated staff is becoming a big issue. Poor quality staff cause a lot of stress and can do real damage to a practice. The central problem is the explosion of digital red tape. ATO and other bureaucrats have no conception whatsoever of the importance of transparency and simplicity in regulatory administration. Any tax agent could give you a long list of utterly atrocious and time-wasting rules and procedures championed by the ATO. The job summit should focus on getting serious about stopping the rot of escalating red tape. Do that and you won’t need all these “employees” who want to earn more than their skill sets warrant, doing things of no benefit to society. If we could deploy some of the resources squandered on this pathetic pursuit of red tape and allocate it to aged care, care of the young, care of the disabled - wow, what a benefit to society that would be.1
- Keeping staff is easy. Keep them healthy and happy! For some that means paying seniors more than a cleaner gets per hour. It means treating your staff with respect and understanding, and giving seniors autonomy over their work. Stop the bullying that is prevalent in accounting offices, both overt and covert. Follow Sir Richard Branson's philosophy - treat your employees like an asset, not an expense. In turn they will take care of your clients, your business and your bottom line.1
- No need to go beyond pay packets, just cut your margin and share it in a more equitable manner with staff. Intermediates and seniors are leaving because they've realised that the job is way too hard for what they earn. They take easier jobs that pay more elsewhere - that's it. If professional bodies represented members instead of partners, and worked for members - think CFMEU, wow. Council admin staff earn what intermediates get!0
