undulating numbers<\/strong><\/p>\nsince 1971, the aicpa has been keeping track of the supply of professionals with its trends report on accounting education, the cpa exam and public accounting firms\u2019 hiring of recent graduates.<\/p>\n
reports since 1994 show undulating numbers as the supply of graduates rises and falls. the numbers haven\u2019t changed all that much in all those years. there were 45,469 bachelor\u2019s degrees earned in 1994, and 52,481 earned in 2020.<\/p>\n
the low was 34,719 in 2002, but the numbers rose from there, reaching 57,483 in 2012. since then they\u2019ve declined a bit to the 2020 number, the most recent available.<\/p>\n
the numbers for master\u2019s degrees have been consistently lower, of course, but they followed the same general wave. there were 20,442 master\u2019s degrees awarded in 2020.<\/p>\n
over the past couple of decades, the percentages for genders have wavered very slightly within a range of just a few percentage points near half and half. today, 51% of new hires are men, 49% women.<\/p>\n
interestingly enough, 72% of graduates obtaining associate\u2019s degrees were women, while only 28% were men. at the same time, 54% of master\u2019s grads were women, as were an astonishing 67% of new ph.d\u2019s.<\/p>\n
is there a pipeline problem?<\/strong><\/p>\nthe trend was dipping just as the pandemic hit. the 2020 number for bachelor\u2019s degrees was down 2.8%. master\u2019s degrees took a more serious plunge of 8.4%. the quarantines, closures and economic impact of the early 2020 arrival of covid-19 probably had something to do with the dip as it prevented graduations.<\/p>\n
but still, a dip\u2019s a dip. and a dip-dip-dip-dip-dip \u2013 the consistent trend since 2015 \u2013 does not bode well. in five years, the total number of graduates has dropped from 79,174 to 72,923, and germs had nothing to do with it.<\/p>\n
nonetheless, the administrators of college accounting programs are optimistic. a solid 58% of academia respondents expected enrollment for 2021-22 to be higher than the previous year.<\/p>\n
did that work out? too soon to say. data from the national center for education statistics have not been released yet, and even when they are, it might be tricky to infer the effects of the pandemic or extrapolate post-pandemic trends.<\/p>\n
hiring is rising.<\/strong><\/p>\naccounting firms have long been challenged to find professionals. generally, they\u2019ll snatch up whoever\u2019s qualified. yet in 2020 \u2013 again, with covid-19 and all its early uncertainties \u2013 hiring of new accounting graduates decreased by 10%. but look at these contradictory stats:<\/p>\n