Accountants are ‘the new software engineers,’ according to HR and payroll data

We know. We know. We need more accountants.

Between the 2012–2013 and 2021–2022 school years, enrollment in accounting programs dropped 16.9%, according to the Journal of Accountancy. The decline has grown so acute that the PCAOB (Public Company Accounting Oversight Board) pointed to the accountant shortage as a possible contributing factor in the rise of audit deficiencies seen since 2020.

Long story short: We’re always looking for good news about the state of accountants and hiring—and we recently got some from the HR and payroll company Deel.

In 2024, hiring and salaries figures for accountants grew faster than any other job category on the platform, which it says houses over a million contract and full-time workers across over 35,000 companies.

Salaries were up 15% while hiring grew a whopping 74%.

The report noted a combination of “declining interest in the profession from early-career workers and the financial complexity of managing a global workforce” are two factors that likely “made accountants a precious commodity” on the platform.

In the eyes of the report’s authors, it was a significant enough climb to liken it to the hiring frenzy for software engineers, which drove up salaries.

“While software engineers are still the most-hired role on Deel, accounting is becoming the new must-have skill for global organizations,” the authors noted, stressing that accountants saw bigger salary gains than software engineers. “Whether the hiring spree will solve accounting’s talent shortage will be a major story to watch in the years to come.”