Great increase in demand for global accountants! - says specialist recruitment director

 

Think Global Recruitment’s Managing Director, Abigail Stevens, has successfully assisted accountants to secure international careers for 20 years.  Having set up Think Global Recruitment almost 16 years ago, she analyses the current state of the global job market.

Movement in any job market, but especially the accountancy sector, is always a good gauge on how the economy is doing.  The great news is that we have definitely seen a large increase in the need to hire in 2015, not quite to the extent of pre worldwide recession 2007, but certainly the best we have seen since then. As 2016 gets underway, it’s worth noticing just how international professional accountants are this year. We have witnessed unprecedented numbers of candidates enter the UK from a wide-range of countries across the world. 

What’s happening in the UK Job Market?
 

"They have realised there are just not enough recently qualified accountants and junior managers"

As firms come out of the recession feeling stronger and ready for growth, they have realised there are just not enough recently qualified accountants and junior managers available on the local market to support the increased demand on the sector.  In the last few months we have assisted the Top 6 CA firms to hire accountants from Ireland, South Africa, Zimbabwe, Ghana, Latvia, Czech Republic, Canada, Cyprus, Tanzania, Ukrainian, Romania, Lithuania, Brazil, Argentina, Mauritius, the Philippines and Malaysia over the last year.

Think Global Recruitment has assisted firms in the UK to fill around 200 vacancies in the last 12 months with professionally qualified accountants from locations as far away as The Philippines and as close to home as Ireland.  These accountants have filled a much needed skills gap and enabled our clients to prosper.  The UK market has certainly kept us busy for the last couple of years.

 

 

The table above shows a broad-based rise in demand in the UK for permanent staff in December, accountancy & finance jobs are rated third. (Source: Markit report)

 

What about outside the UK?
 

Well there has certainly been movement there.  We have assisted accountants from Britain and other countries across the globe to secure permanent jobs in locations such as Australia, New Zealand, Bermuda, The Caribbean, Germany, France, Switzerland, Asia and the Middle East.  It certainly feels like the world has opened up again to accountants seeking global experience.

There are however, still some locations that have not opened up again, post-recession, to bringing accountants in yet.   America, whilst being one of the highest on people’s lists, still remains the hardest to get into.   There has been a huge decrease in the number of visas available for skilled migrants and its lottery type system leads to very low odds and difficult terms in getting one. Canada has also increased its restrictions on entry making the process more complicated. Australia, New Zealand and Middle East have been recruiting, but the numbers are lower in comparison with the pre-recession years.

Future predictions? 
 

"There will be a worldwide shortage of qualified accountants for the next two or three years"
 

Well if the 2000/2001 dip in the economy is anything to learn from, there will be a worldwide shortage of qualified accountants for the next two or three years.  This will result in a considerable increase in movement in this sector across all the global hotspots. So if you're an international accountant you won't be out of work anytime soon!