Center For Audit Quality, the Kool-aid distributors responsible for the Accounting+ initiative that should not be confused with the VR game of the same name, have released their latest Audit Partner Pulse Survey for spring 2025 and oh boy. We shouldn’t be surprised to find out audit partners at the largest public company audit firms in the US aren’t feeling rosy about the future but we didn’t realize they’d be this dour.
To the question “Overall, how would you characterize your outlook regarding the US economy over the next 12 months?” the percentage of audit partners pessimistic about the future of the economy rose from 10% in 2024 to 44% while optimistic responses went from 38% to 15%. Are y’all OK?
You are free to use the comment section to discuss what happened between then and now to bring about this drastic change in view.
There’s another chart we’d like to share with you. On the subject of human capital, 54% of respondents say companies in their primary industry are reducing headcount. 45% of these companies are maintaining compensation while just 11% are increasing it. We want you to remember that the next time one of these companies runs to the news to cry about how they can’t find talent.
This chart covers all respondents across different industries:
CAQ has some cool interactive charts on their site you can play around with to get numbers on specific industries if you want to take a look. Check out the Government and Public Services one:
Literally off the charts. Related to the above, let’s throw in one more chart. CAQ asked the audit partners to what degree companies in their primary industry sector have been affected by the talent shortage (um…but they said…nevermind), 23% of respondents said not very much or not at all:
And here’s a YoY view going back two years:
Make what you will of those figures.
See more survey results and play around with the data from CAQ here.
Oh well, the party was fun while it lasted. Time to trim the fat!
Seeing this and then seeing articles praising the 12% uptick in accounting enrollment seems funny to me.
Also it seems like all the pipeline issues are due to a churn and burn model of doing business in accounting.
That would make me conclude that pursuing a career in accounting right now as a terrible decision since there actually might not be a job for you initially or 5-8 years into your career…
“That would make me conclude that pursuing a career in accounting right now as a terrible decision since there actually might not be a job for you initially or 5-8 years into your career…”
This has been proclaimed by some for a decade (whether due to economy, AI, tech, etc.), and yet the usual layoffs occur as they always do, yet profitability and growth stay consistent… at some point we learn that we were wrong on the pessimism, right?
The problem with the chart above, and the article as a whole actually, is that we don’t get the acknowledgement that the thought/expectation turned out to be wrong… we keep it relevant for some reason. Strange.
Auditors… so we can’t blame private equity for this one.
Pursuing accounting degree is a terrible idea. Just don’t do it. Take accounting courses but don’t need the degree.
As someone who has spent my entire career in accounting and have done pretty well with it from a career and financial perspective, I would absolutely encourage my kids to avoid this profession. Not because it isn’t a good and important profession. I believe it is. It’s because the leaders of our profession are eager to kill it after sucking every last drop of blood they can squeeze out it.
Greed, no sense of responsibility to our financial markets, and a complete lack of vision. That’s the people who lead the accounting profession.