It's Official. Demand Outweighs Supply.

Some call this news story "good" but I call it unfortunate. Well, maybe the publicity is good...

Accounting made #1 on a list (in Am City Bizjournals) of most desired grads. It's official, accounting is hurting more than every other sector when it comes to needing qualified, interested people.

Demand officially outweighs supply. Dare I say the future we've worried about is here.

Bizjournals are reporting:

The number of new college grads hired by the service sector is expected to increase by 19.8 percent this year, based on National Association of Colleges and Employers' [NACE--a human-resources organization] findings.

Hot employment fields for grads

Employers are on the lookout this year for graduates holding the following bachelor's degrees, according to the NACE survey. They are listed in order of anticipated demand:

1. Accounting

2. Business administration and management

3. Computer science

4. Electrical engineering

5. Mechanical engineering

6. Information sciences and systems

7. Marketing and marketing management

8. Computer engineering

9. Civil engineering

10. Economics and finance

So, what can we do to make this profession more attractive? (to those in it as well as those thinking about it...)

We have people fleeing public accounting almost as fast as law (new lawyer defections are approx 85% in the first 5 years)--yet the law school pipelines are generating plenty more--not so with accountants.

And in accounting, we have people with 8, 9, 10 or more years of experience with ZERO desire to ever be owners in their firms.

Is it time to look at and try new ownership models? 
(Some of us think the traditional partnership model is broken.)

Explore a new "practice" equation, perhaps?
(My friend Ron Baker, author of Firm of the Future, explains the New and the Old Practice Equations, in this National Law Journal interview transcript.)

What will it take to open firms' eyes to the fact that it is time to do something other than let this become the next generation's problem. Let's work on improving the posterity of this profession!

Comments

[Rick Telberg]

Indeed! "the future we've worried about" may be here already.

[Michelle Golden]

Thanks for bringing more attention to this important issue, Rick, with your post here:

http://www.telberg.com/telbergblog/index.php?url=http://telberg.com/telbergblog/archives/685-Good-News-for-New-Grads.html

The salaries for starting CPAs are *so* low compared to law. This is surely one thing that students consider. A couple more years in school and their salaries easily start at double.

But I don't think that is the core of the problem.

Note that even those high law firm salaries aren't enough to "retain" people in law firms. The high attrition rate for young lawyers illustrates this.

The accounting profession is not far behind. With so many leaving, it's no wonder there is a shortage of "partner-material" people at the senior/manager level! In many cases, those with the most vision, the most potential for leadership, are the most proactive and have moved on.

From what young practitioners tell me, I suspect the problem lies with partnership model. It's just not enticing and satisfying enough to motivate the best and the brightest to stick around anymore.

What will firms do to make the firm (partnership) environment more appealing to future owners of the type they want?

I'm not hearing firm owners talk much about this. Mostly they are distraught over the problem and just keep hoping it will remedy itself.

If no solutions are applied, merger is the only option for the succession of many firms and with the number of firms available as merger candidates, it's a buyer's market. I suspect quite a few will just have to close their doors.

Sorry to sound doom & gloom, but profession, we have a problem!