Over our many years in the accounting and finance recruiting industry, we can safely say that this is the most challenging hiring market for companies here in the Mile High City that we have ever seen.
From staff accountants to controllers, from financial analysts to VPs of finance, every role at every level is in demand.
And as a professional services firm specializing in CFO and accounting/finance support that serves a wide range of companies in the Denver metro area, we are often asked why it is so difficult to hire quality people right now. We thought we’d do a little research and answer that question. Here are the primary reasons we believe it’s a tight market here in Denver:
Many in accounting are retiring. As in other industries, a big factor affecting accounting in particular is the mass exodus of accountants who are of retirement age. In Q1 2021 alone, 30 million Baby Boomers reported that they were leaving the work force. Those Boomers span many industries, but this is a nationwide crisis and a problem for many other industries too. The AICPA estimated in 2015 that 75% of its members would be eligible to retire by 2020.
There aren’t as many new CPAs entering the industry. The AICPA’s Trends in the Supply of Accounting Graduates and the Demand for Public Accounting Recruits (2019) painted a concerning picture for accounting and finance. New CPA exam candidates were the lowest they’d been in more than a decade.
Demands from job candidates have changed…a lot. In 2020, every company in America had to adapt quickly to social distancing requirements amid a pandemic about which we knew very little. Many closed their offices temporarily and some still have sustained their work-from-home policies. Fast forward to now, and we’re seeing a big impact on what workers want from their employers. An internal survey of the TGRP Solutions recruiting team tells us that:
- Of the hundreds of candidates our recruiters have met with in the last six months, at least 75% have expressed a preference for work-from-home flexibility.
- Of that 75%, about 40-50% have said that they would consider going into the office for the right opportunity.
- So, if you assume a sample size of about 100 potential candidates, at best:
- ~25 are totally open to in-office opportunities
- ~37 are open to in-office opportunities “if the right opportunity arose”
The remaining 38 candidates do NOT want to work in an office again. And it’s probably going to be very easy to lose out on those 37 candidates that would work in an office if it was “the right” opportunity. They could easily get poached by a company that comes in with a fast, aggressive offer that offers work-from-home flexibility.
The bottom line: employers that want to complete for candidates must adapt. Most want at least some flexibility in their work schedule (and location). And if you’re unwilling to offer that, you might miss out on good candidates.
Accounting and finance have been affected by COVID. We’ll call this one the COVID effect.
Just about every industry has been impacted by COVID, with the leisure and hospitality industry leading. But the U.S. Bureau of Labor and Statistics reports other industries that have been hit hard too: professional and business services being one of them. It’s impossible to know for certain, but we have seen a trickle effect for certain. For a while, staff accountant-level jobs were proving incredibly hard to fill. Why? Perhaps due to a temporary loss of workers who were instead remaining on unemployment.
Denver is HOT. Look at any ranking out there and you’ll see that Denver continues to be ranked one of the hottest job markets in the country. Great companies continue to relocate here (and others continue to expand) and they’re all fishing in the same limited talent pool. That alone would be tricky, but it’s only exacerbated by the other points made above.
There’s no doubt: it’s a tough time for companies as they compete over great candidates and spin their wheels after losing out on the perfect person for their open job in the final stage of the process. Our next blog will focus on exactly that: how to improve your hiring process to mitigate some of these challenges.
Questions about the Denver job market? About how to adapt your hiring processes? Tune in for part II of this blog next week and contact us to discuss! We’d love to hear your insights.
