Essential data on accounting workforce departures, retention challenges, and strategies for building resilient finance teams
Accounting firm turnover reached a 20-year low of 11.8% in 2025, yet this headline figure masks a more complex reality. Turnover varies significantly by firm size, and experienced accountants remain challenging to recruit. For CFOs and Controllers building high-performing finance teams, understanding these statistics isn't just academic. It's essential for developing talent strategies that can withstand ongoing accounting talent shortages.
According to Inside Public Accounting data, accounting firm turnover reached a 20-year low of 11.8% in 2025. This represents a significant decline from the 15.9% peak during the Great Resignation in 2022.
Inside Public Accounting's longitudinal research shows that firmwide turnover reached 15.9% in 2022, the highest level in its dataset covering more than two decades.
Across all industries, US voluntary turnover declined to 13.0% in Mercer's 2025 survey, down from 17.3% in the 2023 survey and 13.5% in the 2024 survey. The latest survey covered turnover during 2024–2025 across 2,617 US organizations.
Nearly 40.3% of US organizations reported difficulty hiring or retaining employees for certain roles in Mercer's 2025 workforce survey.
The turnover statistics become more concerning when viewed alongside the structural talent shortage affecting the accounting profession. Understanding the accounting talent shortage helps finance leaders contextualize their retention challenges.
The US had an estimated 1,595,200 accountant and auditor jobs in 2025, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. This workforce serves as a baseline for understanding the scale of the talent challenge.
The figure covers accountants and auditors across industries, including public accounting firms, corporate finance departments, government organizations, and other employers.
The BLS projects 115,300 annual openings for accountants and auditors, on average, from 2025 through 2035. These openings result from both employment growth and the need to replace workers who transfer to different occupations or exit the labor force.
Accountant and auditor employment is projected to grow 5% from 2025 to 2035, adding approximately 79,400 positions.
This projected growth exceeds the average for all occupations.
Technology is expected to change the work accountants perform, but the BLS does not anticipate automation eliminating overall demand for the occupation during the projection period.
More than 300,000 US accountants and auditors left their jobs during the two-year period examined in a December 2022 Wall Street Journal analysis, representing a reported 17% workforce decline.
The AICPA's 2025 Trends report recorded 55,152 accounting degrees awarded during the 2023–2024 academic year, representing a 6.6% decline from the previous year.
However, the latest student pipeline indicators are more encouraging. Undergraduate accounting enrollment increased 8.9% at four-year institutions in spring 2026, according to AICPA enrollment data.
The Controllers Council's 2026 research found that 61% of finance leaders reported experiencing accounting, finance, or CPA talent shortages. This included 46% reporting minor shortages and 15% reporting significant shortages.
Understanding the true cost of turnover helps finance leaders justify investments in retention strategies and alternative talent solutions.
Replacement costs extend beyond recruiting fees. They can include vacancy-related productivity losses, hiring manager time, onboarding expenses, training, and disruptions to critical finance processes.
Gallup estimates that replacing professionals in technical roles costs approximately 80% of their salary. Replacing a skilled employee may require extensive candidate screening, technical assessments, and knowledge transfer. The financial consequences can become more significant when a departing professional holds specialized expertise in financial reporting, internal controls, or enterprise accounting systems.
Gallup estimates that replacing leaders and managers costs approximately 200% of annual salary.
The median annual wage for accountants and auditors reached $83,680 in May 2025, according to the BLS. The median for accountants and auditors employed in finance and insurance was $93,290.
Salary is only one component of total employment cost. Companies may also incur benefits, training, recruiting, and administrative expenses. When turnover occurs, those costs can increase further through repeated hiring cycles and temporary gaps in finance team capacity.
Research on employee turnover reveals that compensation, career development, burnout, management relationships, and workplace flexibility can influence retention decisions.
Gallup research found that 42% of voluntary leavers believed their manager or organization could have done something to prevent them from leaving. The nationally representative research surveyed 717 people who had voluntarily left an employer during the previous year.
Gallup research shows that employees who very often or always experience burnout are 74% more likely to be looking for another job.
Accounting professionals can face concentrated workload pressure during month-end close, audits, tax deadlines, and financial reporting cycles. When demanding periods become persistent rather than temporary, the resulting stress can make retention more difficult.
Research from Pew Research Center found that 46% of remote workers with jobs that can be performed from home said they would be unlikely to remain with their current employer if remote work were no longer permitted.
Research suggests that employee retention concerns often involve several overlapping factors:
Gallup found that 45% of voluntary leavers reported that neither a manager nor another leader proactively discussed their job satisfaction, performance, or future with the organization during the three months before their departure.
Not all turnover is equal. Understanding patterns by career stage and organization type helps target retention efforts more effectively.
Mercer's 2025 US workforce survey reported 9.9% voluntary turnover among white-collar professionals.
Mercer's survey also reported 6.3% voluntary turnover among employees in management roles across the surveyed organizations. Losing a senior accountant and losing an Accounting Manager may create different challenges. Managers often carry supervisory responsibilities, institutional knowledge, and accountability for reporting processes that can make replacement particularly disruptive.
Inside Public Accounting's 2025 research, summarized by the Ohio Society of CPAs, found that firms generating more than $75 million annually experienced 14.6% turnover, compared with 8.1% at firms generating less than $5 million.
Gallup research found that highly engaged business units experienced 21% lower turnover than less-engaged units in organizations classified as having high turnover.
The Controllers Council's 2026 talent research found that 74% of respondents cited internal training programs as an approach to addressing finance and accounting skills gaps. Finance leaders can strengthen internal capabilities through mentoring, cross-training, technical education, and opportunities to take ownership of more complex responsibilities.
Training also supports succession planning by reducing dependence on a small number of employees who hold critical institutional knowledge.
Pew Research Center found that 72% of hybrid workers would choose a hybrid work arrangement if they could determine their preferred working pattern. Finance leaders can evaluate arrangements that balance collaboration, employee preferences, security requirements, and the demands of financial reporting.
Clear expectations around availability, documentation, deadlines, and communication can help accounting teams maintain accountability across different working models.
The BLS Occupational Requirements Survey found that 68.4% of accountant jobs routinely allowed telework in 2025. Organizations that offer flexible arrangements can access professionals beyond their immediate geographic markets while supporting employees who value location flexibility.
However, effective remote accounting work still requires secure systems, documented procedures, clear management responsibilities, and appropriate communication practices.
As AI automates more transactional accounting work, the skills that matter most are shifting toward judgment, review, and strategic thinking.
A Gartner survey found that 59% of finance leaders reported using AI in their finance functions in 2025, compared with 58% in 2024. The survey covered 183 CFOs and senior finance leaders.
The combination of replacement costs, persistent shortages, and burnout-driven departures creates ongoing challenges for finance teams. Building a hybrid finance function that combines US-based leadership with experienced global finance professionals offers a potential path forward.
This approach provides several advantages:
Global hiring also allows organizations to recruit professionals with relevant industry experience, accounting qualifications, and familiarity with US financial reporting requirements.
However, successful implementation depends on careful candidate selection, effective onboarding, secure systems, and clear integration into existing teams.
For finance leaders facing turnover challenges, MAVI's AI-driven matching offers a different approach. Rather than competing exclusively for the same pool of local candidates, MAVI connects US companies with rigorously vetted, experienced global finance and accounting professionals who can work as embedded members of their teams.
Only about 2% of candidates pass MAVI's vetting process, which includes experience reviews, technical assessments, structured interviews, and credential verification.
Professionals hired through MAVI work within client teams, using their existing systems, tools, and workflows. When someone leaves unexpectedly, MAVI can help identify qualified candidates quickly, with hiring and onboarding possible in as fast as five days, depending on the role and circumstances.
Companies like Public and Crisp have used MAVI to strengthen their finance teams and support changing operational needs.
For CFOs and Controllers, the goal is to reduce the disruption caused by vacancies while maintaining the expertise required for accurate reporting and sustainable growth.
MAVI helps organizations pursue that goal through:
A resilient finance team requires both strong retention practices and a reliable hiring strategy. By expanding access to experienced professionals, organizations can address talent gaps without compromising their long-term workforce plans.
Explore Mavi to build your finance team.
There is no universal threshold that applies to every accounting team. Inside Public Accounting reported 11.8% overall accounting firm turnover in 2025, while larger firms experienced higher rates than smaller practices. Finance leaders should compare turnover against relevant benchmarks for their organization's size, structure, and employee experience levels. An elevated rate should prompt an investigation into compensation, workload, management practices, and career development opportunities.
Replacement costs depend on compensation, seniority, recruiting requirements, onboarding, and lost productivity. Gallup estimates that replacing technical professionals costs approximately 80% of annual salary, while replacing managers and leaders can cost around 200%. Companies should calculate their own turnover costs using recruitment spending, vacancy duration, training, and disruption to critical financial processes.
Accountants may leave because of compensation concerns, excessive workloads, burnout, limited advancement opportunities, workplace culture, or changing career goals. Gallup's cross-industry research found that 42% of voluntary leavers believed their departure could have been prevented.
Effective approaches include competitive compensation, manageable workloads, clear career development paths, mentoring, employee engagement, and flexible work arrangements. Gallup research associates higher employee engagement with lower turnover, while Controllers Council research highlights widespread use of internal training to address finance skills gaps.
Accounting talent shortages increase the importance of retaining experienced employees and planning for replacement needs. The BLS projects approximately 115,300 annual accountant and auditor openings through 2035, while Controllers Council research indicates that many finance leaders continue experiencing shortages. Although accounting student enrollment has recently improved, organizations still need professionals with practical experience, technical judgment, and the ability to take ownership of critical finance responsibilities.
