your mother was right: “become an accountant and you’ll always make a living.”
take a look, for instance, at the latest jobs report from the u.s. department of labor, which showed the overall economy lost 533,000 jobs in november – but it also showed gains for cpa firms against non-cpa accountants and bookkeepers.
for the broad accounting and bookkeeping services category, the government counted 974,500 persons employed — which includes everyone from staff accountants to self-employed tax practitioners. november’s figure represents a loss of 1,700 jobs in the month, and an 18,800 loss from the record peak of 993,300 in december 2007.
but look a little closer, and the numbers tell another story: the market appears to be consolidating around the market leader – the certified public accountant.
cpa firms are expanding their employee rosters and continuing to gain market share against non-cpa accountants. cpa firms had 450,200 employees in the latest month, for which data is available, up 23,300 jobs from the year-ago month, or 5.5%.
meanwhile, non-cpa-owned payroll services and other accounting services showed declines.
so far, cpas and cpa firms are positioned to gain market share and even grow their business in this economic cycle.
