Accountant Shortage In Australia
If you’ve tried to hire in the last two years, you already know this isn’t a rumor. Roles that used to fill in six weeks are now sitting open for three months or longer, and it’s rare because firms are being picky.
Yes, the shortage of accountants in Australia is real, and no, it’s not a soft, cyclical dip either.
The country needs an average net increase of roughly 4,000 accountants and auditors every year for the next decade just to keep pace with forecast demand. Yet the domestic pipeline of graduates coming through the higher education system is falling well short of what is required.
Chartered Accountants ANZ’s survey of vacancies advertised between January and December 2025 found fill rates sitting well below the threshold Jobs and Skills Australia uses to flag a national shortage. That threshold is 67%. Several core roles are sitting nowhere near it.
Tax accountants, general accountants, and external auditors are copping the worst of it. These roles form the backbone of financial reporting, compliance, and advisory services that Australian businesses rely on every day. When these positions go unfilled, the impact ripples outward: audit timelines blow out, tax advice becomes harder to access, and smaller practices in regional areas face the genuine risk of having to turn clients away.
On the other hand, Finance managers and management accountants are still relatively easy to fill. So this isn’t “accounting” as one broad category struggling. It’s specific, compliance-heavy roles that firms can’t staff fast enough.
What Does The Data Say About Australia’s Accountant Shortage?
One firm struggling to hire could be bad luck. But when multiple independent sources point to the same conclusion, it is time to take notice.
Recent reports from CA ANZ, CPA Australia and Jobs and Skills Australia all point in the same direction: Australia isn’t producing enough experienced accountants to meet demand. The demand is in fact outstripping the supply.
Here are the data facts:
| Role Type | Average Vacancy Fill Rate | Average Days to Fill Role |
|---|---|---|
| External Auditors | 49% | 113 Days |
| Internal Auditors | 40% | 83 Days |
| General Accountants | 49% | 79 Days |
| Taxation Accountants | 55% | 77 Days |
Source: CA ANZ 2026 Occupation Shortage List submission, based on vacancies advertised Jan–Dec 2025.
So, are there no graduates passing out from college looking to work in finance? Professionals apply for dozens of jobs. Yet firms across Australia still say they can’t find enough accountants.
So, who’s right? Turns out, both are.
The reason for this gap is a stark disconnect between entry-level job applications and the availability of qualified, senior talent.
What Do Vacancy Fill Rates And Industry Statistics Show?
The numbers as we saw above, all point in the same direction: Australia isn’t producing or retaining enough accountants to meet demand.
In a normal market, you’d expect 80 to 90% of roles to fill within a reasonable timeframe. But the graduate pipeline tells the other side of the story:
| Category | Domestic | International | Total |
|---|---|---|---|
| Graduates | 1,528 | 5,492 | 7,020 |
| Commencements | 2,730 | 9,139 | 11,869 |
Source: CPA Australia
Roughly 70% of international graduates leave Australia after qualifying. So out of 7,020 graduates, only about 3,000 to 3,500 actually stay and enter the workforce.
Retirements are adding even more pressure. Oxford Economics Australia estimates that the accounting profession will experience a 21.1% attrition rate between 2024 and 2030 due to retirements, career changes, and migration.
Taken together, these figures explain why many firms are struggling to recruit, retain, and grow their teams. It’s like a bucket with a hole in the bottom. You’re pouring graduates in at the top, but experienced people are leaking out faster than they can be replaced.
Is There A High Demand For Accountants In Australia?
Is there a high demand for accountants in Australia? Absolutely.
In the CA ANZ survey, 35% of firms reported higher demand in 2025 compared to 2024. Only 7% said it was lower. The rest stayed about the same.
But demand isn’t even across the board. Here’s how it breaks down:
- Public practice is the most exposed. No staff means no fee income. It’s that simple.
- Corporate and commercial roles stay strong, especially in financial services, healthcare and construction.
- Government roles are stable but less flexible on salary, which makes them harder to fill when the private sector pays more.
Geography matters too. Graduates gravitate toward Sydney and Melbourne for obvious reasons: career pathways, salary bands, exposure to bigger clients. In contrast, NSW, Victoria, Queensland and South Australia are chronically short on both general accountants and external auditors.
Why Does Australia Have An Accountant Shortage?
There’s no single villain here, which is part of why the shortage is proving so stubborn. It’s like several things have stacked up over years. By itself, each one looks manageable. Together, they’ve done real damage.
The main drivers, in order of impact:
- A shrinking graduate pipeline – University accounting enrolments have been declining for a long time. Fewer school leavers see accounting as an attractive career next to tech, finance, or data roles.
- Degree costs rising – Between 2020 and 2026, Commonwealth contributions for accounting dropped by $882 per year while maximum student contributions rose by $6,244. That’s a big swing. Accounting just got more expensive relative to other degrees.
- Rising compliance burden – Payday Super, tightened ATO enforcement, and expanding AML/CTF obligations have all added workload without adding headcount.
- International student dependency – With 70% of international accounting grads leaving after qualifying, the system leans on a group that mostly doesn’t stay.
- Ageing workforce – 21.1% attrition through 2030, driven largely by retirements. The profession is losing experience faster than it can replace it.
- Competition from adjacent fields – Accounting skills transfer easily into data, tech, and cybersecurity roles, and increasingly, that’s where graduates go instead.
How Is Australia’s Wider Skills Shortage Affecting Accounting?
Accounting isn’t short-staffed in isolation. Nursing, engineering, IT and teaching are all in the same boat.
That matters because accounting is competing for the same graduates as those sectors, and not always winning. Here’s how accounting stacks up against other shortage occupations:
| Occupation | Shortage Status | Key Driver |
|---|---|---|
| Registered Nurses | Shortage | Ageing population, regional demand |
| Software Engineers | Shortage | Tech sector growth |
| Secondary Teachers | Shortage | Low enrolments, attrition |
| Accountants (General) | Shortage | Graduate pipeline, retirements |
| External Auditors | Shortage | Compliance load, attrition |
Same pattern across the board: not enough people coming in, high demand going out, experienced staff retiring. What sets accounting apart is the regulatory load. Every new reporting requirement adds work that has to be done by someone, but never comes with extra hands to do it.
How Is The Accountant Shortage Affecting Australian Businesses?
The effects of the shortage of accountants, auditors, etc. are going to show up very differently. But at the end of the day, no one is immune.
- Recruitment costs are rising – Advertising, recruiter fees, and time spent interviewing all add up when you are chasing a small pool.
- Teams are stretched – Empty roles do not mean less work. The remaining team absorbs it, which leads to burnout and eventually more departures. It is a vicious cycle.
- Revenue takes a direct hit – An unfilled senior tax role is three months of fee income that does not come back.
- SMEs cop it hardest – Large firms can absorb shortfalls or bring in offshore support through existing structures. Small practices lack that flexibility. You cannot match Big Four salaries, and you probably do not have the infrastructure to manage offshore teams on your own.
We worked with a three-partner firm in Melbourne that had been trying to hire a senior tax accountant for seven months. They had stopped taking new clients because the existing team could not absorb more.
Once they took to smartsouring with us, they were back to growing within a quarter. The lesson: waiting for the right local hire is not the only option.
P.S. See how others have done it on our case studies page.
What Are The Best Solutions To Australia’s Accountant Shortage?
There is no single fix. What works for a Big Four firm will not work for a suburban practice. Here are the main levers:
- Skilled migration
CPA Australia and CA ANZ have both called for accounting to stay on the skilled occupation list and the Core Skills Occupation List. For firms that can sponsor, this is the fastest route to experienced talent.
- Reduce degree costs
CA ANZ wants accounting degree fees lowered and Commonwealth contributions increased. A long-term play, but essential if you want domestic enrolments to recover.
- Traineeships
CA ANZ has proposed adding accounting traineeships to the Australian Apprenticeships Priority List. This creates a pathway that does not rely solely on university graduation.
- Retention
In a tight market, keeping who you have is cheaper than chasing new hires. Invest in career pathways, professional development, and working conditions that make people want to stay.
- Operational redesign
Automate routine compliance, make better use of practice management software, and restructure workflows so experienced staff focus on higher-value advisory work. Technology will not replace accountants, but it changes how many you need for the same output.
Can Outsourcing Help Solve Australia’s Accountant Shortage?
Looking at the current shortage, yes. Outsourcing has moved from last resort to mainstream and for good reason. It lets you scale without being limited by the local hiring market.
But not every other task needs to be outsourced. The firms that try to offload the whole practice usually end up with quality problems and a partner who has to review everything twice anyway. The real skill is knowing what to send offshore and what to keep in-house. We call it smartsourcing and it comes down to separating process work from judgment work.
Many firms choose to offshore services such as:
- Bookkeeping and bank reconciliations
- Year-end financial statements and workpapers
- BAS preparation and compliance support
- Tax return preparation
- Self-Managed Super Fund (SMSF) compliance management
- Payroll processing and routine accounting tasks
Compared to traditional hiring, outsourcing gives you faster access to qualified staff, a lower cost per role, and flexibility to scale.
How Can Firms Implement A Capacity Strategy Successfully?
A capacity strategy is not just a hiring plan. It is a deliberate approach to how your firm gets work done, combining in-house talent, offshore support, technology, and workflow design.
Start by auditing where your time actually goes:
- Local expertise required – client relationships, advisory, complex compliance
- Can be delivered offshore or automated – routine data processing, standard reconciliations, template-driven reports
Then build your team around that split.
Change management matters more than most firms expect. Your staff must have clarity on what’s shifting and why. Firms that skip the structure and jump straight to delegation usually find quality drops and the offshore arrangement gets blamed, when the real issue was inadequate setup.
What Are The Different Perspectives On Australia’s Accountant Shortage?
Ask three people about the accountant shortage in Australia, and you’ll probably get three different answers. Not everyone in the profession agrees on how serious this is, and it’s worth acknowledging that honestly.
Firm owners and hiring managers, especially at small and mid-sized practices, tend to describe the shortage as acute and immediate. They’re the ones absorbing 100-day-plus vacancies directly.
Newer graduates and early-career accountants sometimes see it differently. With plenty of opportunities, the market still is saturated. Surprisingly, there are more applicants for junior roles while senior and experienced positions go unfilled.
So, overall, the accounting shortage Australia is concentrated more at the experienced end. The junior supply has held up comparatively better.
Frequently Asked Questions About Accountant Shortage Australia
Is There Accountant Shortage In Australia?
Yes, for experienced advisory and financial roles like tax accountants, general accountants, external auditors, and internal auditors.
Is There A High Demand For Accountants In Australia Or Not?
Yes, there is a high demand for accountants, especially experienced and skilled ones.
Can Outsourcing Help My Practice Grow Without Hiring Locally?
Yes, outsourcing can help your practice grow by adding skilled capacity without hiring additional local employees.
