Where Does the Tax Job Market Stand Heading in Q4 of 2024?
As we approach the end of the Fall busy season, many of you are likely ready to take some time off and finally kick your feet up. Now that the deadlines are almost in the rearview mirror, it’s time to enjoy the Holidays with family and friends before revving the engine once again when January rolls around. However, the break in the action typically gives way to a massive increase in hiring in the tax job market in November and December. But will that stay the same this year? We gave an update on the job market in the April newsletter, and this one will be focused on updating where things stand six months later.
Undoubtedly, the demand for skilled tax professionals is still high. Public accounting firms are consistently looking for talent as the shortage of tax professionals remains. Although the job market on a macro appears to be slower, the need for experienced tax professionals is apparent. However, compared to the numbers we saw in 2022-2023, we’ve seen an overall decrease in the number of availabilities. We referenced an estimated overall decrease of 20-30% in industry/corporate tax hiring, and we’ve seen that stay consistent over the last six months. Fears of an economic slowdown, uncertainty around the election, and a slower overall job market has led corporations to keep the budgets tighter. Non-tax layoffs and overall hiring slowdowns have paused headcount increases in many tax departments. Now, what does this mean for tax professionals thinking about exiting public accounting for the dream industry role?
Well, I don’t want to discourage you, your perfect industry role does still exist. However, you’ll likely need to be a little bit more patient than if we rewind back to ’22 or ’23. Industry opportunities are still available, but the frequency of these availabilities within corporate tax teams has dropped relatively significantly. It may take a willingness to go back to public for another busy season to wait for the perfect opportunity.
Now that we’ve covered corporate tax positions, let’s look at where things stand in public accounting. The above trends for industry roles don’t appear to be impacting public accounting in the same way. Smaller to medium sized public accounting firms are consistently on the lookout for talented tax professionals, and we’re anticipating the typical “mad dash” hiring in the 4th quarter to remain consistent in ’24. We’ve actually seen more hiring during the fall busy season than in past years, and this indicates to us that firms are desperate to find good people. Larger firms with a full internal recruiting team are still scouring LinkedIn, just like we are, to find experienced professionals looking to make a change. As we move past 10/15, we’ll get a much better gauge on what this hiring season looks like, but overall, it appears that 2024 will still be a great year for any experienced public accounting tax professional looking at new opportunities!
If you’d be interested in more info about what we’re seeing in the market, feel free to shoot me an email! We wish you the best of luck getting through the 10/15 deadline!
