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The basics:

• U.S. faces CPA shortage, with 124,200 new accounting jobs per year expect to open through 2034
• Wiss expands recruiting beyond accounting majors and adopts AI tools
• Grassi‘s employee ownership model helps attract and retain talent
• Goldstein Lieberman stresses training and in-house growth over outsourcing

An increase in regulatory complexity, coupled with a growing need for business advisory services, is spiking the demand for CPAs and other accountants. About 124,200 new jobs per year are expected to open up for accountants and auditors through 2034, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

But a rise in retiring accountants along with a drop in the number of incoming individuals means a shortage of incoming CPAs. One ominous sign: the number of candidates fell more than 32% since 2016, according to a December 2024 report in The CPA Journal. NJBIZ spoke with some firms to find out how they’re responding to this looming challenge.

Wiss – a Florham Park-headquartered accounting, tax, advisory and wealth management firm – has developed some strategies to attract and retain talent, according to CEO and Managing Partner Paul Peterson.

“We saw early on that more firms were recruiting from a declining population,” he said. “To address this, we expanded our recruitment efforts to include individuals with diverse majors and backgrounds. For example, we are now recruiting more finance graduates, and people interested in QuickBooks and other certifications who are looking to change careers.”

Many experienced accountants are retiring “and the pipeline of new CPAs isn’t keeping pace,” Peterson explained. “The 150-hour education requirement [In 1988, the AICPA instituted a requirement for all new members to complete 150 semester hours of education after the year 2000] has discouraged some from entering the field. At the same time, regulations like Sarbanes-Oxley increased demand for CPAs globally, making the profession more complex and competitive.”

To attract talent, Wiss is taking on more “non-traditional” candidates, such as students who did not major in accounting. Peterson shared an example of a finance major who joined the firm and is now “excelling” in her role.

“She is incredible, runs engagements, handles assignments, and takes accounting classes,” he said. “This approach has allowed Wiss to tap into a broader talent pool and provide opportunities for individuals to transition into the accounting profession. There are more roles [for CPAs] now, since an increasing number of companies outsource their financial planning and analysis.”

AI solutions

Besides diversifying recruitment efforts, Wiss is leveraging artificial intelligence to address the talent shortage.

“We are using AI too, although it is still nascent,” Peterson said. “Wiss collaborates with a company called Basis, which develops AI agents to handle repetitive, lower-level tasks. By partnering with Basis, we automate routine work and free up our team’s time for strategic, client-focused problem-solving,” he explained.

Leveraging AI lets Wiss bring in more work and retool its people for higher-level, predictive activities that add more value. “These intelligence tools increase the value of what accountants can do for you,” Peterson added.

Thinking creatively helps Grassi – a national advisory, tax and accounting services firm – to attract qualified individuals, according to Chief HR Officer and HR Consulting Principal Jeff Agranoff.

“We continue to recruit a lot of entry-level candidates and develop our talent pipeline,” he said. “Grassi is an employee-owned firm, and our ESOP [Employee Stock Ownership Plan] is a significant factor that enables us to continue to attract and retain talent. Our ESOP has also resulted in low turnover rates — low to single digits, compared to double digits in the industry.”

He characterizes the ESOP, which was announced in 2023, as a way to invest in the firm’s associates. “We don’t sell shares to private equity or to the public. Designing a people-first firm has helped Grassi maintain a strong talent pool and foster a supportive and engaging work environment.”

In addition to its ESOP, Grassi has expanded the scope of its talent search. While the firm continues to primarily focus on hiring qualified accounting professionals, it is open to bringing in non-traditional talent for advisory and consulting roles. “To some extent, we do hire non-accounting majors, but not much,” explained Agranoff. “We find qualified people for advisory and consulting roles as we build out our services. This approach allows Grassi to diversify our talent pool and bring in individuals with varied skill sets to enhance our service offerings.”

The ESOP approach is gaining traction. In 2023, for example, another large CPA firm, BDO, also announced it was instituting an employee ownership plan.

“An ESOP is the realization of our purpose of helping people thrive, every day. It is a game-changer for our people, clients and communities, designed to improve lives for generations to come,” announced BDO USA Chief Executive Officer Wayne Berson at the time of the launch. “Amid the changing landscape of our profession, the ESOP unlocks the value of our firm today and embodies our strategy to sustain a strong, caring and resilient business for tomorrow. We are proud to establish this ESOP to invest in each other so everyone who contributes to our success has the opportunity to benefit from it.”

Filling a void

If accountants expect to solve the candidate shortage, the profession needs to do some soul-searching, according to Park Ridge-based Goldstein Lieberman & Co. CEO Phillip Goldstein.

“The fact that more than 300,000 CPAs have left the profession in recent years is concerning,” he said. “This exodus – due to retirement and other issues – has left a void in the industry, creating a pressing need for innovative solutions to attract and retain talent. This mass departure has been compounded by a dramatic drop in college enrollments in accounting programs, which to some degree is because the profession has done a terrible job of attracting young talent in general.”

The news will not get better anytime soon. “A recent study by the AICPA indicates that approximately 75% of current CPAs are less than 15 years away from retirement,” Goldstein added. “This impending wave of retirements will exacerbate the existing shortage of professionals in the CPA and accounting profession as a whole. This is a profession that already has a shortage of professionals.”

Some firms have tried to boost headcount by outsourcing work to countries like India and the Philippines. But Goldstein said his firm decided not to take that path. “We believe it puts our clients and their corporate and personal information at risk for identity theft,” since their identity theft protection practices do not always meet U.S. standards.

GLC, like some other firms, is taking some of the load off with AI, but “that means juniors are not getting trained,” Goldstein observes. He reflects on his own experience, recalling how he learned from scratch using a calculator.

“Once AI takes hold, how will young people get trained bottom-up?” he asked. “Our firm is committed to ensuring that younger professionals gain the knowledge and experience needed to succeed by prioritizing in-house training and leveraging advanced technologies.”