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Accounting Firms

Accountants most ‘in demand’ job in Scotland, study reveals

Accountants are the most in-demand-job candidates for employers in Scotland, report suggests.

According to Hays Salary and Recruiting Trends 2020 Guide, part-qualified and newly qualified accountants are the most in-demand based on increases to salaries over the past 12 months.

A newly-qualified accountant topped the list, followed by a cloud architect and tax manager. An auditor position was ranked fourth and a quantitative surveyor finished the top five list.

DevOps engineers, cybersecurity analysts, digital marketing managers and health and safety managers finished the list alongside HR managers.

Akash Marwaha, managing director of Hays in Scotland, said: “Salaries for part-qualified and recently qualified professionals have increased by 7% and 4% respectively. This is due partly as a result of accountancy practices reducing their intake of trainees’ years ago, leaving higher availability of less qualified candidates. 

“Demand is also high in particular for management accountants and finance analysts in the manufacturing, charities, housing, FMCG and retail sectors.”

He added: We’ve also seen auditor and tax manager feature on our list this year because, on qualifying as accountants, candidates tend to make a move away from audit, as audit can be seen as a training ground, rather than a long-term career path. Tax has always been a candidate in-demand sector, as it’s a specialised sub specialism of the accountancy sector.”

The report also revealed around 54% of workers in Scotland planned to look for a new job in the new year, as 38% of the 1,794 people surveyed said there is no career progression with their current employer. 

Marwaha said: “In the accountancy sector, technical finance and managerial roles will be a priority for employers when hiring this year, as organisations continue to tighten financial controls. In engineering, automation engineers are now frequently sought after outwith the general manufacturing industry and into the retail, FMCG and pharmaceutical industries.”

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