Edward F. Yazbak has been searching for five years for a younger upstart to take over his North Smithfield practice.
But the chairman of the Rhode Island Society of Certified Public Accountants has noticed something curious: the business is awash with people around his age group, but there are much fewer young people.
“The profession is aging out,” he said.
When Yazbak graduated from Bryant University in 1980, there were 163 aspiring CPAs in his class. This year there were 70, he says.
Yazbak estimates that there has been a 50% to 66% drop in the number of CPAs working locally in recent years. He thinks the industry may have a marketing problem.
“We are our own worst enemy. We don’t do a good job of emphasizing the good points,” he said. “There is never a day when I don’t want to go to work.”
More than 300,000 U.S. accountants and auditors have left their jobs since 2019, a 17% decline, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Making matters worse, 75% of CPAs will be retiring or close to retiring in the next 15 years, according to the American Institute of CPAs.
And with crisis comes opportunity. CPA holders make up to 15% more than those without a certification in similar positions, boosting earnings by $1 million over the course of their lifetime, according to the BLS.
But for many young people, there are more important things than salaries.
In her final year at the University of Rhode Island, Bridgett Madden, a finance and public relations major, faced a common dilemma.
“I wasn’t sure exactly what I wanted to do,” she said.
Then a friend and classmate who was studying accounting persuaded her to take an internship. Madden learned about the work and, more importantly, about the job security. She liked what she saw.
“I thought there were more opportunities there,” she said. “I knew that I could get a job.”
After graduation, Madden needed to find the right fit. She had seen many peers start at one of the “Big Four” accounting firms, only to flame out.
“The paycheck is enticing, but so many end up staying less than a year,” she said. “They are feeling less valued. People my age value their time more than money. These [companies] can’t be so demanding anymore.”
Tyler Wentworth, co-founder of job recruiting company The Hive LLC, has seen a growing number of clients grapple with the shortage. Given the complexity of the job description, connecting accounting firms with competent workers was already difficult.
“Now, it’s been the most challenging I’ve ever seen,” Wentworth said.
Wentworth says accounting firms may have become set in a hiring criterion that no longer applies.
“People are looking for the same profile,” he said, such as candidates beginning with between three and five years of experience. “They are not willing to look outside the box.”
As a fix, Wentworth said, companies began making opening offers “the highest I’ve ever seen.” What used to be $60,000 became $80,000 “with little experience.”
The public sector may have it worse.
R.I. State Auditor David Bergantino said “everyone has struggled to find capable financial staff. It’s something the state auditors talk about quite a lot.”
Bergantino says his office is down five full-time auditors.
“It really is … making financial reporting difficult,” he said. “The chances of getting an initial draft [audit] of lower quality is very high.”
URI accounting professor Judy K. Beckman agrees that perceptions about the job need to be reversed.
“Students and the public have the misconception that working in accounting is boring. It is anything but,” she said.
Beckman says that starting salaries increased for URI accounting graduates by 21% from 2021 to 2022.
“Still, that may not be enough,” she said. “We are still seeing a decline in the number of students choosing accounting as a major.”
Donald Zambarano, the managing partner at KPMG LLP’s Providence office, said the company “has certainly seen an increase in competition for skilled talent and a decline in the CPA pipeline.”
The firm is no longer waiting for candidates to come to them. Instead, it is trying to create a labor pool by convincing future workers that a CPA is a wise investment, recruiting primarily from URI, Bryant, Providence College and Roger Williams University.
Melissa Travis, CEO and president of RISCPA, said the association established a training program in partnership with the R.I. Department of Labor and Training’s Real Jobs RI program focused on “soft skills and data analytics.”
Still, “the state has hundreds of open positions in the public and private sectors,” Travis said. “At a time when the number of CPAs retiring, or soon to retire, is increasing, the number of students enrolling in college is decreasing.”
After graduation, Madden took a job at CBIZ & MHM and is now studying for the first of four exams needed to receive her CPA.
She enjoys the pace and job security that getting her CPA should provide.
The company is paying for her examination fees and materials and is offering reimbursement for private tutors and a generous bonus if employees receive their CPA license within a year.
Yazbak predicts the industry will consolidate as bigger firms outmaneuver the smaller companies such as the one he spent his career building.
“We’re beating the bushes and banging the drums,” he said. “We need to let people know it isn’t about being stuck in a dingy office running numbers.”
