Accounting Careers on the Upswing: A Win for Financial Literacy

The AICPA’s 2009 Trends in the Supply of Accounting Graduates and the Demand for Public Accounting Recruits study shows that the number of students that graduated with accounting degrees in the 2007-08 school year surpassed the previous year’s record level. More than 66,000 achieved bachelor’s and master’s degrees in accounting—3.5 percent higher than in 2006-07. Enrollments in undergraduate, graduate and doctoral programs in 2007-08 achieved a 4.7 percent boost over the previous year, with an aggregate total of 213,000 students.

This represents the largest number of graduates since 1972, the year the AICPA began tracking the data. Although the hiring of new graduates has declined overall as a result of the weakened economy, midsize/large regional firms (50–200 CPAs) did report an increase in recruiting new accountants.

As more young adults choose accounting as their career pathway, the level of individual financial literacy—and what will be given back to the community—increases. With the student outreach initiatives touching high school and college audiences, as well as incorporating college students interested in accounting, we can plant the seed of giving back and the importance of financial literacy in the ever-growing populous of our next generation’s accountants. This is one step closer to a more financially empowered California.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, July 29th, 2009 at 11:00 am and is filed under Financial Literacy. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.