The demand for skilled talent in finance and accounting remains high in mid-2024. That means employers must intensify their efforts to hire and retain both long-term and short-term talent if they want to meet their hiring goals in the months ahead.
It helps to know which roles are in highest demand so you can prepare to compete effectively for top candidates — and understand where to amplify retention efforts within your organization.
Robert Half’s Demand for Skilled Talent report can equip you with that insight. It highlights the latest data from surveys of hiring managers and our analysis of thousands of job postings to help you make informed hiring and management decisions.
Let’s look at what we learned from our research for the midyear update of our report.
Finance and accounting managers are encountering significant competition for talent, particularly for accounts payable, financial reporting and payroll positions. This trend underscores the growing demand for accountants at a time when fewer students are seeking degrees in accounting and entering the profession or earning in-demand credentials like the CPA.
Meanwhile, fewer professionals are actively looking for jobs. Robert Half’s research also shows that the Big Stay is in effect, with only 35% of U.S. workers planning to look for a new job in the second half of 2024. That’s down from 49% during the same period last year.
The overall demand for accountants and bookkeepers showed no significant decline since our last update, underscoring the scarcity of active job seekers for open roles in these areas.
Data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics shows that the unemployment rate for accountants and auditors was just 1.6% during Q2 2024 and the rate for bookkeepers was 1.8%. Other finance and accounting positions with unemployment rates trending well below the national average, which was 4.1% in June, include financial analyst (1.7%) and compliance officer (1.0%).
According to analysis of a proprietary dataset of more than 3.5 million U.S. job postings, including 60,000 Robert Half placements, hiring within the business services industry in the first half of 2024 accounted for over 40% of all finance and accounting jobs, which is more than 185,000 positions.
Explore our Demand for Skilled Talent report to see what specializations employers need most.
While 85% of finance and accounting managers said they face challenges finding skilled candidates in today’s hiring environment, many aim to recruit talent for their firms in the second half of 2024. Many are specifically seeking talent to help support top strategic priorities for their organization this year, like planning, budget and forecasting processes and data and analytics initiatives.
Nearly half of the managers surveyed (45%) said they plan to expand their teams and staff both new and vacated positions. Fifty-six percent reported that they need to hire candidates for entry-level roles, and 46% are looking to bring in talent for management positions.
To help augment their permanent teams, 59% of finance and accounting managers plan to increase their use of contract professionals in the second half of 2024, especially for roles in:
Financial reportingFinanceFinancial planning and analysis (FP&A)Budgets and analysisAudit
Future-forward measures, such as providing flexible work arrangements and the ability to learn and work with emerging technology like AI, can help companies attract and keep in-demand professionals. So, too, can providing more traditional offerings that many employees value today, such as:
Competitive compensation, including compelling perks and benefitsOpportunities for career advancement and professional developmentPrograms and policies that promote a healthy work-life balance (our workplace research shows one-third of professionals are experiencing high levels of burnout)
Employers may also want to consider engaging resources like specialized recruiters to find the finance and accounting talent they need for their teams, including passive job seekers prepared to make a move for the right opportunity and high-potential candidates willing to be trained.
Want more insights? Check out the full midyear update of Robert Half’s Demand for Skilled Talent report.
The Demand for Skilled Talent report by Robert Half is an authoritative source providing essential insights into employment trends. This report has offered a deep dive into the U.S. hiring landscape for over a decade, spotlighting challenges and strategies to attract and retain talent. It explores what employees seek in their careers, identifies common recruitment errors and suggests solutions. The report spans finance and accounting, technology, marketing and creative, legal, administrative and customer support, and human resources, proving crucial for business leaders and managers.
