The accountant shortage is nothing new to CPA firms, which have long competed for a limited supply of professionals across tax, audit and assurance while also managing ongoing retirements and turnover. Rebuilding the talent pipeline will take years, although recent trends offer some cause for optimism: AICPA data shows that accounting enrollment at 4-year colleges and universities rose 8.9% in spring 2026, marking the third consecutive year of growth.
Executive Summary
- Dual Talent Crunch: CPA firms are battling a persistent accountant shortage alongside a critical skills deficit. Leaders increasingly struggle to find professionals who pair core technical accounting with data analytics, AI fluency, and strong advisory skills.
- Operational Toll: These talent gaps are actively hindering firm growth. According to Robert Half data, specialized skills shortages have caused project delays for 75% of finance leaders and forced 62% to cancel initiatives like AI upgrades and automation.
- Flexible Strategy Required: To adapt, firms must identify future technological and advisory needs, then utilize a blended talent model. This includes upskilling existing staff to boost retention and leveraging contract professionals to fill immediate tech or regulatory gaps.
- Proactive Pipeline Building: Firms can secure future talent by hiring for baseline potential rather than rigid software experience, supporting continuous professional development, and utilizing structured internship programs to convert students into full-time hires early.
Meanwhile, many firms face another challenge that extends beyond the scant supply of accountants available in the labor market. They need professionals with an increasingly complex blend of technical accounting expertise, technology fluency, data skills, business judgment and the ability to advise clients—and those capabilities are increasingly difficult to find.
Sixty-one percent of finance and accounting leaders surveyed for Robert Half’s latest Demand for Skilled Talent report say they’re having more difficulty finding skilled professionals now than they did a year ago. Skills shortages are delaying critical initiatives involving AI and automation, financial planning and forecasting, data accessibility and security, ERP upgrades and internal talent development. Seventy-five percent of finance leaders say critical, ongoing skills shortages have contributed to project delays in the past year, while 62% report that projects have been canceled.
Together, the accountant shortage and the broader skills shortage are hindering CPA firms’ ability to compete and prepare for the future. These shortages are slowing technology adoption, complicating efforts to strengthen financial reporting and controls, limiting firms’ ability to meet day-to-day client demands and making it harder to deliver the insight and strategic guidance clients increasingly expect.
So, how can your firm respond? Here are some recommendations.
Identify the skills your firm will need next—not just now
Start by looking beyond today’s open roles and immediate priorities and considering how the work your team performs is changing. Automation is taking on more transactional and repetitive tasks, allowing accountants to devote more time to analysis, judgment and client advisory work. In its job outlook for accountants and auditors through 2034, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics notes that as AI, cloud computing and other technologies automate more routine tasks, accountants’ analytical and advisory responsibilities will become more prominent.
Review your growth plans, technology road map and evolving client needs. Which services are becoming more important? Where are you introducing automation or AI into your firm’s workflows? Which engagements require professionals to interpret data from multiple systems, evaluate technology-generated outputs or translate complex findings into recommendations clients can act on?
Use that assessment to define the capabilities your firm will need moving forward. Deep knowledge of audit standards, financial reporting, tax regulations, controls and compliance remains essential, but that expertise increasingly must be paired with skills in areas such as data analytics, financial modeling, ERP systems, automation and AI-enabled tools.
Don’t overlook the human capabilities that make technical expertise more valuable. As routine work becomes more automated, soft skills such as critical thinking, communication, adaptability and problem-solving become even more important. Your team members must be able to ask thoughtful questions, recognize when AI outputs don’t make sense and explain complex issues clearly to clients.
Use a flexible talent strategy to keep in-demand skills close at hand
Once you identify your firm’s most critical skills gaps, determine which capabilities you can likely secure through permanent hiring, which to develop within your existing team and where outside expertise could help address an immediate or interim need. Your goal is to build a team with complementary strengths that can adapt and scale as needs change, while maintaining enough shared knowledge to collaborate effectively.
Investing in skills development for your existing team can help your firm build needed capabilities while giving employees opportunities to grow. This approach can support employee retention. It may also be more cost-effective than relying solely on external recruitment for specialized skills. According to Robert Half’s 2026 Salary Guide, 87% of finance and accounting leaders typically offer higher salaries to candidates with advanced skills than to those without them for the same role.
Internal development takes time, however, and some needs simply can’t wait. Contract professionals and consultants can provide targeted expertise for system implementations, data projects, regulatory demands, busy season workloads or new advisory offerings. Robert Half research finds that 63% of finance and accounting leaders plan to increase contract or temporary hiring through the end of 2026.
Whenever possible, have employees work alongside outside specialists throughout an engagement. That experience can help them build the skills and context needed to take ownership of projects later.
Hire for potential—and make development part of your firm’s value proposition
When specialized skills are scarce, overly rigid hiring requirements can make an already difficult search even harder. Distinguish between the capabilities a professional must bring on day one and those that can be developed through training and experience. Strong accounting fundamentals, professional judgment, intellectual curiosity and a willingness to learn may provide a better foundation for long-term success than familiarity with every platform your firm currently uses.
This doesn’t mean lowering your standards. It’s about recognizing how fast technology changes—and that a candidate’s capacity to learn may be as valuable as experience with a particular tool.
Once you hire a high-potential professional, follow through with relevant development opportunities. Continuing professional education (CPE) can be an important part of that effort, and many accountants value employers that actively support licensure requirements and ongoing learning. Online courses and continuing professional education have a role, but employees often build capabilities more effectively when they can apply what they learn. You might pair them with experienced colleagues, rotate them onto different engagements or give them responsibility for a defined part of a special project. For example, a tax professional could help evaluate an AI-enabled research tool, or a senior accountant could join client planning discussions to strengthen advisory and communication skills.
Development can also include mentoring, hands-on technology training, exposure to new service lines and protected time to learn. Use regular career conversations to understand which capabilities employees want to build and identify opportunities that align those interests with your firm’s priorities. That will help make professional development an important part of both your skills-building strategy and your employee value proposition.
Help bolster the accounting talent pipeline by offering internships
You may not be able to solve the accountant and specialized skills shortages alone, but you can change how your firm responds to them. For example, you can offer internships—paid, whenever possible. By giving students meaningful exposure to the profession, your CPA firm can identify promising talent early, begin developing needed capabilities and build relationships before those students are recruited elsewhere, including by larger firms. A well-designed program can become a valuable recruiting channel: NACE reports that employers converted 63.1% of their 2024–2025 interns into full-time hires.
The internship experience should be more than a line-item for a candidate’s resume. Give interns substantive assignments, exposure to different areas of the practice and guidance from seasoned professionals who can explain how each assignment supports clients and the firm. Alongside traditional accounting responsibilities, offer appropriate exposure to analytics, automation, AI-enabled tools and client service so interns can begin building the mix of capabilities the profession increasingly requires.
Make the potential path beyond the internship clear. Interns should understand what an entry-level role could involve, how your firm supports CPA licensure and how they can continue developing their skills as they begin their careers. By investing in emerging talent early, your firm can help strengthen the profession’s talent supply while developing the capabilities it will need for the future.
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Steve Saah is the executive director of permanent placement at Robert Half, the world’s first and largest specialized financial talent solutions service. The company has more than 300 locations worldwide. He is responsible for leading U.S. operations, based in the Washington, D.C., metropolitan area. He was named executive director in 2017, previously serving as director of permanent placement services.
Saah has been with the company since 1998, where he started as a recruiting manager, following a career as an internal auditor and assistant controller. He is a noted expert, author and presenter on career, management and hiring trends, particularly those affecting the accounting and finance fields. Saah earned a finance degree from Virginia Tech.
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