Accountants’ mental health harmed by skills shortage, survey finds

Almost 90% of worldwide professionals have stated that increased working hours caused by an “existential” skills shortage are “significantly” harming their mental health, work life balance and stress levels, according to Advancetrack’s Accounting Talent Index survey. The report from the global accountancy outsourcing specialists revealed that the impact is hitting accountants at all levels – from staff to partners, with young employees in particular “voting with their feet”. It said it estimates that around 300,000 accountants exited the profession between 2019 and 2022 in the US and this trend is mirrored across the UK and Australia. The Accounting Talent Index also revealed that almost half of firms (45%) worldwide are being “severely” or “significantly” affected by the skills shortage. The index, which surveyed firms across continents, estimated the figure to scale to hundreds of thousands of firms, with 74% reporting the problem to be “significantly worse than three years ago”. It also showed the perception of accounting as a “demanding profession with unappealing long hours and high stress is a significant deterrent, compounded by an evolving job market where other professions may offer more attractive benefits, work-life balance, and perceived career fulfilment”. Additionally, for 25- to 29-year-olds, the median salary for accountants dropped by around 6% between 2016 and 2022. Conversely, professions such as data analysts (13%), management analysts (7%) and marketing analysts (6%) all saw significant increases. Three-quarters of the firms reported partner hours had increased, with 42% of cases showing an increase of more than 20%, or an extra day per week. Advancetrack’s call for action comes after ICAEW charity Caba recently published a similar analysis of mental health in the accounting profession across the UK. That report said more than half (56%) of accountants are suffering from stress and burnout, with workload, long hours and complexity cited as the main reasons. Vipul Sheth, MD of Advancetrack, said: “The Accounting Talent Index shows we face a perfect storm: It seems it’s never been harder to be a partner of an accountancy firm – and it’s never been less appealing to join the profession. “The root cause seems to be the ever-widening chasm between demand and supply of talent in major economies like the U.K., U.S. and Australia. What we need now is a concerted effort to stop the rot, with the sector’s biggest firms leading by example. We’ve developed five action points we’ll be urging organisations across the sector to embrace, regardless of their size or geography.”