Accounting firms brace for fresh squeeze in tight labour market

Accounting firms battling with the tightest labour market in 25 years are bracing for a fresh squeeze in the local war for talent.

The big four consulting firms are embarking on an international hiring spree to offset the looming brain drain, with hundreds of qualified auditors to hit our shores in the coming months.

Accounting firms battling with the tightest labour market in 25 years are bracing for a fresh squeeze in the local war for talent as travel-starved workers eye a dash overseas once borders fully open.

But the big four consulting firms – KPMG, Deloitte, EY and PwC – which have been grappling with the auditor shortage through the Covid crisis, are embarking on an international hiring spree to offset the looming brain drain, with hundreds of qualified auditors to hit our shores in the coming months.

The shortage of qualified auditors in Australia has affected all the big consultancies since the borders were slammed shut, prompting the Australian Securities and Investments Commission to relax deadlines and requirements placed on companies reporting their financial accounts over the past two years.

With Australia’s international borders now opening, consulting firms are racing to recruit from overseas to beef-up their teams before the inevitable exodus of the homegrown talent.

Deloitte’s recruitment drive has seen it secure 100 international workers ahead of the borders opening, with the auditors to commence in the coming months, the firm’s spokeswoman Carmen Roche said.

“Deloitte has been focused on international recruitment and currently has 750 applicants with over 100 accepted offers.

“A number of our international recruits have already started with Deloitte and we are looking forward to over 100 auditors commencing at Deloitte in our offices across Australia over the first half of 2022,” Ms Roche said.

To deal with the shortage through Covid, Deloitte has, for more than 18 months, increased its local hiring activities, lifted its graduate recruitment program and extended its virtual mobility program, which allows access to qualified auditors from across its Asia Pacific and global firm.

Alongside the bump in international recruits, it will ramp up its graduate intake by a further 15 per cent this year, after doing the same in fiscal 2021.

Like Deloitte, EY has also been aggressively recruiting from overseas, with 100 new hires slated to arrive in Australia in the coming months. Alongside this, EY will take on close to 1000 graduates in next year.

“At EY we took a very conscious decision early in 2020 to not make Covid redundancies, so it means we are not playing catch up – but it is still a very competitive market,” said Glenn Carmody, EY managing partner for assurance. “We currently have more than 100 people due to arrive at EY in January after visa issues are finalised.

“As a global firm we are also in active discussions with our other offices to facilitate both in and outbound secondments, as our borders reopen. We want to provide the international experiences for our people – something they haven’t been able to do for two years.”

The plan to recruit almost 1000 graduates in 2022 is a significant uplift from its 2021 numbers, Mr Carmody added.

“It’s the tightest recruitment market we have seen in 25 years and we are very focused on attracting great, diverse talent,” he said.

Even with the international drive, the auditor shortage will face fresh challenges in 2022, PwC Australia assurance leader Matt Graham warned.

“Our audit practice, like many other practices within the professional services industry, relies on a number of talent pipelines, including international secondments. The shortage of finance professionals may get worse before it gets better.

“We have many team members who haven’t seen family for nearly two years and will be keen to take a break and book a trip as soon as they can. We also have several team members who have been waiting a very long time for an international work experience opportunity.”

KPMG has auditors waiting to start work in Australia, including recruits from Asia, Europe, South Africa and North America.

“It’s a case of working as hard as possible to help bring them across into this country,” said Julian McPherson, KPMG national partner – audit.

“We are working as hard as we can to recruit as many as we can, just because it takes time to bring them into the into the country.”

A spokesman for ASIC said the regulator was monitoring audit firm resources.