COLUMBUS, Ohio — Long hours, low initial pay, high student loan debt and a lack of work/life balance are all reasons attributed to a lack of people entering the accounting profession, according to the CPA Journal.
Ohio has 33,000 certified public accountants and their numbers are dwindling in large part because of retirement.
“There is definitely a shortage of professionals in the accounting industry for sure we need more people,” says Donna Oklok, executive director of Ohio Accountancy Board.
There are 340,000 fewer accountants than five years ago, according to a Bloomberg analysis of data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, leaving the U.S. with only 1.6 million.
Candidates sitting for the CPA exam have also decreased from 48,004 first-time candidates in 2016 to 32,188 in 2021, a drop of 33%.
“The impact can be significant especially if you own a business. It's hard to find an accountant especially in rural who has experience or knowledge about small business for farm or issues. If you are a franchisee and you need and audit done of your business, you need to have a CPA,” says Oklok.
A shortage of CPAs threatens to prevent local governments from completing timely audits, as required by some states and the federal government, according to a CATO report.
All states require individuals seeking a CPA to pass a four-part, 14-hour exam maintained and scored by the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants. Passing all four sections of the CPA exam is $1,379.20.
Oklok says across the board, students who graduate with a masters in accounting are saddled with student loan debt of about $61,000.
“So that’s not an insignificant amount of money and if you come into the profession you have the potential to make that much, but the profession is trying to address that with higher salaries,” she says.
Many business undergraduates are avoiding the CPA track because states generally require five years of post-secondary education.
But reforms are slowly allowing for candidates to not take all the credit hours at once.
In Minnesota, the state’s society of CPAs proposed legislation that would grant certification to individuals who pass the CPA exam, complete 120 credit hours of education, and have two years of relevant professional experience. The bill has yet to pass.
The South Carolina Association of CPAs is also working on reform legislation. A draft bill would authorize the Accountancy Board of Ohio “to approve up to thirty hours of educational credit derived from non-accredited sources, such as unaccredited courses, apprenticeships, certificates, experiential learning, or alternative educational programs.” So, an aspiring CPA would still have to complete a bachelor’s degree but would have multiple educational alternatives to a fifth year of graduate school.
Oklahoma passed a reform in 2023. Previously, the state required candidates to complete all 150 of the required credit hours before taking the CPA exam. Now aspiring accountants can take the exam after completing their undergraduate degree, but they will still need to complete the additional 30 credit hours before being certified.
The Ohio Accountancy Board will hold a job fair in September at Ohio State to encourage more students to join the accounting profession.