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Accounting grads struggle to find work, but CPA says that doesn’t add up
Australian students turn away from accounting
Accounting students are struggling to find unpaid internships as firms say automation, slack economic conditions and offshoring of low-level grunt work are reducing their staffing requirements.
Yet the two of the three peak accounting bodies maintain that demand for accountants is high and growing.
“Everyone tells you that accounting is one of the safer jobs to have,” said Callum Andrews, 23, from Camden in Sydney’s south-west, who finished an honours degree in accounting at the University of Wollongong last year. “But I’ve found it difficult to get a job. It is demoralising.”
The co-ordinator of the university’s internship program, Lynnaire Sheridan, said it has become increasingly difficult to place accounting graduates, even for short, unpaid work experience.
“In the Business Internship Program, on average, 20 undergraduate students compete for one or two corporate accounting internship roles each semester,” said Dr Sheridan.
“In auditing, the larger companies are no longer going to recruit graduates because they can outsource the work to China.”
One Melbourne-based CPA Australia member, who applied for a fee reduction because he has been out of work for more than a year, said he was told by CPA staff that the paperwork would be delayed because the association had been “swamped” with applications.
CPA Australia denied there had been any increase in these types of membership applications.
‘THERE IS MOVEMENT UP THE FOOD CHAIN’
“This is wrong,” spokesman Ben Pratt said. “Reduced fees are offered for a range of reasons and applicant numbers are in line with previous years.”
Yet outsourcing in some form – driven by cloud-based accounting technologies and cheap communication facilities – was affecting the total spectrum of the accounting world from the big four to the smaller sole practitioners, said Morrows accountant Murray Wyatt.
Automation and offshoring would reduce demand for junior accounting jobs by 10 to 15 per cent in First World economies, which would be offset by a spike in demand in emerging economies, said Edward Nusbaum, the global chief executive of big six accounting firm Grant Thornton.
Wyatt believes this will get worse.
“At this stage, outsourcing is affecting more task-oriented transactional processing and production of reports and statement of advice, rather than the management of the project and the client relationship, but slowly there is movement up the food chain,” he said.
The Department of Employment says there is no shortage of accountants and wants accounting taken off the Skilled Occupation List for migrants.
Its official data shows that there were, on average, 38 qualified accountants applying for each accounting position in 2012-13, well above other professions.
Overall demand has also fallen.
‘THERE WILL NOT BE ENOUGH LOCALLY TRAINED ACCOUNTANTS’
The number of internet job ads for accountants has plummeted from a peak of about 15,000 a month in mid-2008 to about 5000 a month in mid-2013.
Last week, The Australian Financial Review revealed the number of Australians studying accounting fell 20 per cent between 2001 and 2012 and foreigners now vastly outnumbered local graduates.
But CPA Australia and the Institute of Chartered Accountants have taken a different view. The associations, which both derive revenue from assessment of migrants with accounting skills, have repeatedly told the federal government there is a shortage of accountants and want accounting to be kept on the list of Skilled Occupation List.
CPA Australia spokesman Mr Pratt said the association believed “demand for accountants is high and increasing as economic conditions and business confidence improves”.
“It is our contention that there will not be enough locally trained accountants to meet demand in the future, particularly in some specialist areas.”
This view has led to charges that CPA Australia has a conflict of interest in catering to its foreign and local members.
The association has about 37,000 overseas members out of a total 2012 membership of more than 144,000.
‘I’M EITHER OVER-QUALIFIED OR UNDER-QUALIFIED’
Morrows’ Mr Wyatt said: “The conundrum is that there is an inherent conflict in acting on an individual basis for a member that resides overseas and the member that resides in Australia, given their employment interests may be diametrically opposed.
“I don’t believe it is possible for CPA Australia to contemplate protectionist types of politics, particularly when the reality is Australian graduates – whether they like or not – compete against their offshore counterparts.
“Clearly this is going to lead over the long term to rationalisation of Australian graduate employment expectations and rewards.”
CPA Australia denied there was any conflict between the needs of its local and overseas members.
“Our vision to become the best members services organisation in the world and we work every day from 19 offices globally – including every Australian state and territory – to make it a reality,” spokesman Mr Pratt said.
Forty-two year-old Perth graduate Sheree Taylor finds the stance of the CPA Australia “frustrating”.
Having graduated from Edith Cowan University with a Bachelor of Business (Accounting) last year, Ms Taylor has given up on finding a part-time accounting role and is now looking at financial planning.
“I’m either over-qualified or under-qualified,” she said. “There are no junior positions. It makes me wonder why I studied accounting at all.”
Do you know more? Contact ed.tadros@fairfaxmedia.com.au |
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