2012 has till now, been a year where organizations are still not willing to build on their headcount. However, there is still demand of the best in the industry. Those businesses which are willing to take the chance of counter-cyclical investment will opt for hiring people and take risks to get ahead of the competition.
Most companies, this year will be playing wait and watch since they have to look after their existing employees first and further engage own people. Finance teams and account professionals have increasingly felt the pressure of a tough economy. Additionally, the accounting professionals are subjected to more ad hoc requests and high scrutiny with detailed clarifications required by the management.
Impact of Offshoring on the Salaries of Accounting Professionals
Offshoring of business processes has made a drastic impact on the number of jobs since most accounting jobs of transactional nature have been outsourced to eastern countries for cost-effective results. Banking operations and process-driven accounting jobs are offshored to different companies in India, China and the Philippines.
The present scenario of accounting jobs and careers has reduced the window of opportunity for salary arbitrage as those fluent in English and well versed with accounting standards are sought after in offshore locations at a faster clip compared to present market benchmarks.
There are some business managers who are not happy with the incessant delays and mistakes which continually compromise on the overall quality of output while some managers are quite positive about the quality and timeliness delivered by their offshore teams.
Skilled Candidates are still In demand
In spite of a challenging job market, high calibre candidates are in demand since companies still want to hire accounting professionals with good business acumen, communication skills and who are technically strong.
The market uncertainty changes job seeker behavior since jobs are hard to get and those already employed prefer to stick to their present ones in spite of dissatisfaction over their salaries and overall job nature. There are few candidates for applying for jobs since only the cream of the crop will be preferred on most occasions.
Salary Trends
Number crunchers, managers and insurance agents faced no drastic change in their salaries and there was a hike of 1.2 percent on a year-to-year basis.
Most jobs connected to the housing industry and mortgage saw wages grow faster than the national average four years back. But simultaneously the growth weakened with a drastic drop in wages in 2009 by 1.5 percent. The rebound in the financial sector which happened in 2010 helped many accounting professionals to get jobs with a median wage though the growth since then has been very slow.
A consistent climb in the overall earnings has brought the wages to the peak levels achieved four years back. Additionally, if a job seeker is consistent in job search and always proactive in his or her approach, one might land a better job offer than the others. Job search through online job boards and aggregation sites is useful in this regard.
