<p>Source: John Kehoe , Australian Financial Review, 8 July 2009</p>
<p>In another sign of the economic downturn hurting the professional service sector, accounting firm KPMG is cutting the working hours of staff by 20 per cent and informing staff that they may be required to take up to 12 weeks' leave. The firm informed staff of the plans in an email yesterday, KPMG managing partner for people James Allt-Graham saying that under the 'voluntary program' designed to stave off a third round of redundancies, the first two seeing cuts of 101 and 99 staff, that KPMG may ask staff to reduce their work schedule by one day per week. A second option is 'part-paid leave', with the firm also encouraging employees to use their spare time for further study or volunteering in the not-for-profit sector. More than 75 per cent of employees have agreed to participate in the 'temporary work arrangement' agreement.</p>
<p>Rival firm Ernst & Young is understood to have laid off over 100 accountants, while PricewaterhouseCoopers axed 170 employees this year and revealed that 90 per cent of its full-time staff had agreed to take two to three weeks of unpaid leave during the next six months. Deloitte said it was looking at cutting costs rather than staff. Law firms have also been shedding employees this year, Blake Dawson chopping 89 jobs, DLA Phillips Fox 66 jobs, Corrs Chambers Westgarth letting 47 go and Minter Ellison losing 35 employees.</p>
<p>i thought accounting was recession proof? looks like its just as vunerable as every other business field. nothing special here folks, move along.</p>
<p>“looks like its just as vu[l]nerable as every other business field”</p>
<p>No, a couple hundred layoffs out of thousands of workers does not make accounting “just as vulnerable” as other professions (as the previous poster noted: architecture is much, much worse), and from what I’ve gathered, those numbers are not only small as percentages, but also in comparison to other similar business jobs.</p>
<p>This would’ve been a more successful ■■■■■ if you had something to show that the layoffs in accounting firms were of similar magnitude to layoffs in other business fields.</p>
<p>the statistics i posted were just from the big 4. couple hundred layoffs of seniors and staff members. that is very significant. what ever idiot says accounting is recession proof is ■■■■■■■■ because clearly many mid twenty year olds are suffering . they work their but off to accomplish a dream then get it turned off cuz of layoffs just like every other profession so stop trying to lure these gullible kids on CC to accounting because it is not recession proof and not a secure job</p>
<p>So people looking for the most secure business job they can find should do what exactly(note: I will allow that nursing is pretty recession proof).</p>
<p>no idea. go into medicine. pharmacist and doctor. best recession proof jobs that are guranteed work! nursing is good as well.</p>
<p>im just so sick and tired of these people lying to these high school kids saying how glamorus and excellent accounting is. they are trying to lure more to the profession and it really ****es me off how they exaggerate and lie so much.</p>
<p>Who the f *** glamorizes accounting to high school kids? Most kids I know think it’s incredibly boring(not ragging on accounting just saying its not for everyone). Accounting is seen as a recession proof job, which it certainly is since everyone needs taxes done and tons of people/companies get audits. Just because a few hundred were laid off doesn’t mean it’s “vulnerable as every other business field”. </p>
<p>BTW you seem like a giant ■■■■■ for creating a thread to bash something and then telling people “nothing special here folks, move along.” in your very next post.</p>
<p>those people who need taxes done and audits done are going elsewhere or the demand is being lowered because of the economy. i know many accountants that specialize in tax but now since they arent getting any work ( except for busy season) they have to go into other fields of business or change careers</p>
<p>then stop spreading these false images to high school kids that think once they get an accounting job that it is very easy to be replaced. Give other fields of business an equal chance because MIS or Finance might be more recession proof then accounting. Im sick of these egotistical views on accounting when accounting is not what it appears to be. seriously stop scamming these kids</p>
<p>At an average undergrad business school Finance and Accounting are very similar and lead to similar jobs. Finance isn’t recession proof if you look at very cyclical jobs like investment banking and how the stock market is doing right now. I’m not sure about MIS either.</p>
<p>No job is truly recession proof, but I truly believe Accounting is a much “safer” field than Finance or IT. That being said, supply and demand still holds. Don’t be a lemming and simply follow the masses because it is “safer” or more “lucrative.” Personally, I would follow a path less traveled.</p>
<p>Speaking from my own limited experience…accounting seems like it will always have an advantage because the difficulty restricts supply. Jobs have to either really suck or require high standards to maintain high pay. At most schools, everyone is smart enough to be a marketing or management major. I think Finance and MIS probably ought to be difficult(wouldnt know personally) but since there’s not big test at the end of the rainbow with them there’s no pressure for them to be hard. </p>
<p>Because accounting is difficult and considered boring it means there ought to be relatively more opportunity for those who actually choose it compared to other majors. If everyone who signed up for Intermediate Accounting actually ended up graduating with an accounting degree I don’t think anybody would be claiming accounting is “recession proof”. Jobs that everyone thinks are boring and that are hard to do are going to be more secure than the fun ones that anybody can do.</p>
<p>all i see in my area are “bookkeeping jobs” that require accounting degrees paying no more than $15 hr. I live in dfw btw so its not too terribly small. There are few real accounting jobs.</p>
<p>exactly my point johnny. these people on this website and others lure gullible college/hs students into this field not knowing what lies ahead and how the job market is for a regular joe. im just so sick and tired of everyone exaggerating and lying to the children, seriously.</p>
<p>Liore, you say it like accounting is a trap. I’m seriously thinking you’re one of the accountants that got laid off.</p>
<p>The point most people are trying to make here is that accounting isn’t completely recession-proof, but it does handle small downturns very well and even when big downturns like this one occur, it still has better prospects than most degrees. This is because accounting work is not as cyclical as something like investments, which a lot of finance majors aim to work with. Also, there are a lot fewer CPA’s than finance majors, and a lot of finance majors are those who couldn’t manage upper-level accounting classes. Simply put, the demand for accounting jobs is more solid than for finance and there are fewer people who can fill them.</p>
<p>I encourage you to research statistics about finance majors who can’t find jobs or were laid off before saying the hit accounting took is anywhere near comparable.</p>