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The pool of U.S. students who completed accounting degrees has continued its decline in the latest available academic year as the profession struggles to draw new entrants to make up for worker retirements.
CFOs and accounting-firm leaders have been tracking this trend for years, as they think about ensuring that they have the right talent to compete. Moreover, accounting firms and companies’ greater reliance on artificial intelligence for auditing and finance tasks poses a major threat to jobs in the profession, limiting its appeal.
The number of graduates with bachelor’s and master’s degrees in accounting dropped 6.6% to 55,152 in the 2023 to 2024 year, compared to a 9.6% drop a year earlier. The amount is the lowest it’s been since the 2004 to 2005 year, when there were 52,565 graduates, data show.
Roughly 40,800 students earned a bachelor’s degree in accounting in the 2023 to 2024 academic year, down 3% from the prior year, according to a report released this week by the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants, a professional organization, citing IPEDS data. About 14,300 students received a master’s degree in that academic year, down 15% from the prior year. That is compared with drops of 10% and 7.6% for graduates with bachelor’s and master’s degrees in accountants in the prior-year period, respectively.
Fewer people are selecting accounting as their career, citing low salaries compared with industries such as tech and banking. Dozens of U.S. states this year have passed legislation allowing prospective CPAs to bypass a fifth year of school, in a bid to make the accounting profession more appealing and affordable to students.
Firms remain optimistic about hiring. About 75% of accounting firms that hired people in 2024 said they expected to add a similar number of staff or more in the current year, the AICPA said.
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