May 2, 2008
Dear Colleague,
The 2008 AICPA report “Trends in the Supply of Accounting Graduates and the Demand for Public Accounting Recruits” is now available electronically. In addition, limited numbers of the report will also be available in hard copy and one can be sent to you upon your request. The survey results include enrollment, graduation and hiring activity for the 2006 – 2007 academic year. The last such survey was published in 2005, covering academic year 2003 – 2004. The updated 2008 version attempts to identify current and key trends in accounting education and the hiring marketplace.
This AICPA trends report is prepared to provide directional information to various stakeholders and interested parties. We hope that colleges and universities with accounting curricula, CPA firms that hire graduates, business/industry and government entities that employ accounting professionals, and member organizations such as the American Accounting Association, state CPA Societies, Beta Alpha Psi, and many more, will find the information valuable for planning and analytical purposes.
I would like to offer sincere thanks to each and every school and firm – and the individuals responsible – for taking the time and effort to complete the survey. Thanks also to the state CPA societies for assisting in contacting their schools. The amount of data requested is considerable; might be kept in different formats, and often has to be gathered from different sources. I am keenly aware of the volume of other surveys you receive from various groups. Your willingness to participate benefits the entire accounting community and we greatly appreciate your diligence in responding. The overall response rates were encouraging, and allowed us to establish confidence levels for the data presented.
Please feel free to contact us with any questions or comments you might have. We plan to continue with the survey, and hope to constantly revise our data collection and analysis to make the information easier to gather and more targeted to your specific needs.
If you choose to print information from the online report, please do so in color as the graphs and keys are in color for clarity of interpretation.
You may access the report on the AICPA Accounting Education Center Web site.