More than 300,000 accountants and auditors have quit since January 2021, and some accounting firms are no longer performing external audits for businesses, The Wall Street Journal reported Jan. 18.
Large firms have long tapped international labor pools, but small and midsize accounting outfits are struggling to maintain enough staff, the report said.
Several certified public accounting firms in Muskogee, Okla., have stopped performing business audits, with one local managing partner saying her firm had to hike prices for nonprofit organizational audits 310 percent before canceling the service altogether in January 2021, the report said.
Absent any other short-term way to fill the U.S. accounting shortage, employing international accountants for complex tax work is on the rise, New York State Society of Certified Public Accountants CEO Calvin Harris Jr. told the Journal.