There’s an accountant shortage too, which nobody talks about except us in the industry. It SHOULD be talked about though, because it’s another huge ticking time bomb. Financial statements audits performed by third party external accountants are designed to keep businesses honest and report factual numbers to investors. If they report false information then you get situations like Enron.

The problem is that we are overworked and underpaid like everyone else, the work has gotten vastly more complicated, regulatory compliance requirements are more burdensome than helpful, and tons of other issues. The results are that accounting enrollment has plummeted in schools, experienced professionals are being driven away from the industry in huge numbers, and more and more work is being sent overseas to be done extremely poorly. Corporations pay for their own audits and firm partners don’t want to lose a good client so crappy work gets pushed through no matter what.

I’m convinced the next major financial crisis will be from a bunch of huge household name companies getting caught with their pants down after fudging too many numbers. Just a matter of time.