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College graduation is an exciting time for any student who completes a degree, but for those whose diplomas say accounting on them, a new study shows their job prospects are improving by leaps and bounds.

According to the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants, 71 percent of the largest firms in the country are anticipating increasing hiring of new graduates in 2011. And while there are record numbers of accounting students enrolling, if the trend continues, demand for qualified new talent could outpace the supply coming from universities.

Ralph Thomas, executive director of the New Jersey Society of CPAs, said member firms are hiring and the market has improved for accounting.

“Accounting enrollments are at an all-time high, based on the last information we’ve seen, so I think there’s a tremendous supply coming out,” Thomas said. And “there is a more robust market for accounting majors today than there was two years ago.”

The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics and the National Association of Colleges and Employers also report financial jobs will see a fast increase in hiring in the coming years.

Unlike other employment indicators, where New Jersey lags behind the nation, young accountants in the Garden State are seeing the same increases as their counterparts around the country.

Hiring increases 10 percent

“It’s the first time in about four or five years that accountants graduating from school have more opportunities,” said Hayes MacArthur, a principal of human resources for EisnerAmper. “We hired about 10 percent more for 2011 graduating class than we did last year. Next year, it will be as high as 10 percent for next year’s class. I’ve heard the same from some of the competing firms in the area.”

Those with advanced degrees have fared particularly well: In the two years since the previous AICPA study, the percentage of accounting graduates with master’s degrees who hired by CPA firms increased from 26 percent to 37 percent.

Rutgers University’s Newark business school has seen the demand for masters degrees in accounting. Alexander J. Sannella, director of the MBA in professional accounting at Rutgers, said the recession increased the number of people going back to school, sometimes as the only option to entering the work force. Sannella said students in the program saw deferred offers, delayed start dates and lower salaries when offered positions in 2009, but “this year, we’re finding that progressively, salaries are creeping up and we are absolutely placing more people,” between 65 percent and 70 percent.

Dan Stubbs, director of the Masters of Accounting program at Rutgers, said the increase in enrollment seen by schools of business may be influenced by a change in CPA regulations that included corporate accounting into its definition of experience necessary for licensing.

“The opportunities out there at corporations are a lot more attractive, and certainly because the economy is starting to pick up, there are more of those opportunities available,” he said. The program has seen a 3 percent to 5 percent growth rate over the past several years.

Even within the public accounting realm, new opportunities for recent graduates are opening up.

“As companies are beginning to expand again, they are opening up businesses, they are exploring the market and geographic regions they may have never explored before — which increases the complexity of the services they need from accounting firms,” MacArthur said.