millennials say compensation isn’t the most important thing. employers say, “heard.”
by beth bellor
suppose you’re a leader in a field that has fretted for months over staff shortages. would you put on your thinking cap, plug it in for a while and come up with… frozen pay?
more: tax & accounting firms grow for 9th straight month | tax & accounting profession grows, but wages don’t | tax and accounting pay advancing at 5.9% pace | accounting jobs up 4% for year
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strangely enough, that’s what the latest tax and accounting profession earnings data show. compared to previous months, the trend is stagnant or even down. the only bright spot was in payroll services staff, which also added bodies – but cut hours.
(how’s that song go? if it weren’t for bad luck?)
- in the accounting profession overall, average hourly earnings dipped slightly to $41.12, down 4 cents or 0.1 percent for the month but up 90 cents or 2.2 percent for the year.
- staff at $31.70 were down 2 cents or 0.1 percent for the month but up $1.41 or 4.7 percent for the year.
- at cpa firms, earnings hit their lowest mark of the year at $43.32, down 4 cents or 0.1 percent for the month but up 89 cents or 2.1 percent for the year.
- staff at cpa firms made $33.27, up a statistically meaningless penny for the month and 77 cents or 2.4 percent for the year.
- payroll services slipped to $37.14, down 81 cents or 2.1 percent for the month but up 20 cents or 0.5 percent for the year.
- staff in payroll had the only meaningful hike, at $32.80, earning another 35 cents or 1.1 percent for the month and $2.12 or 6.9 percent for the year.
the national job scene mirrored tax and accounting, with few shifts and none remarkable. total nonfarm payroll employment rose by 150,000 in october, and unemployment was changed little at 3.9 percent. the professional and business services sector added 15,000 positions and has seen little net change since may.
employment in the accounting profession reached 1,158,700 in october, up 300 or statistically flat for the month and 24,100 or 2.1 percent for the year. workers averaged 35.8 weekly hours, up 12 minutes or 0.6 percent for the month but down 36 minutes or 1.6 percent for the year.
staff declined to 850,100, down 500 or 0.1 percent for the month but up 24,300 or 2.9 percent for the year. their hours at 35.4 were unchanged for the month and up 6 minutes or 0.3 percent for the year.
cpa firms
cpa firms backslid to 551,900, down 2,600 or 0.5 percent for the month but up 15,900 or 3 percent for the year. they worked 36.9 hours, up 18 minutes or 0.8 percent for the month but down 36 minutes or 1.6 percent for the year.
staff at cpa firms numbered 382,700, a new high topping six months of slow growth. the mark is up 400 or 0.1 percent for the month and 11,300 or 3 percent for the year. at 35.7, their hours were up 12 minutes or 0.6 percent for the month but down 6 minutes or 0.3 percent for the year.
tax prep
tax preparation services employed 92,100, up 1,100 or 1.2 percent for the month but down 3,600 or 3.8 percent for the year.
payroll services
payroll services went up four months, then down three months, and at its most recent, 221,200, is up 1,800 or 0.8 percent for the month and 7,500 or 3.5 percent for the year. employees averaged 34.3 weekly hours, up 24 minutes or 1.2 percent for the month but down 2.5 hours (yes, hours) or 6.8 percent for the year.
staff in payroll were up four months, then down two, and continued the climb they began the previous month to hit 190,400, up 4,500 or 2.4 percent for the month and 15,100 or 8.6 percent for the year. they worked 34 hours, down an hour 24 minutes or 4 percent for the month and 2 hours 24 minutes or 6.6 percent for the year.
bookkeeping
other accounting services ticked downward to 292,600, a decrease of 1,100 or 0.4 percent for the month but an increase of 7,300 or 2.6 percent for the year.
women
women in the profession have been increasing for nine straight months and reached a scant new high of 736,300, up 900 or 0.1 percent for the month and 19,200 or 2.7 percent for the year. at cpa firms, six months of growth were capped with a record 332,900, up 300 or 0.1 percent for the month and 11,200 or 3.5 percent for the year. in payroll services, women dwindled to 104,000, down 3,300 or 3.1 percent for the month and 4,800 or 4.4 percent for the year.
2 responses to “despite staffing crunch, firms freeze pay raises”
frank stitely
most firms have decided to live within their capacity and not hire from the pool of available serial job hoppers. most resumes i see have job changes every two years or less over a decade. we aren’t going to be the next one.
mark foat
i agree! we rarely (if ever) make real margin in the first year for a new staff. it’s usually somewhere in year two or three that we get to acceptable margins. we have to train them to work in our systems and software. we need to teach them our work paper requirements. every client is a new client to the new hire and management review time escalates as we determine strengths and training opportunities. if the applicant has been at more than 3 firms in the last 8 years i’m not interested. and – if they left a previous firm before a filing deadline (without a true “life changing” reason) it’s an automatic no!