Worcester Business Journal

wbjournal.com | September 8, 2025 | Worcester Business Journal 13 which the accounting field can attract new talent, including addressing the time and cost of education, growing support for CPA exam candidates, and enhancing the employee experience, including business cultures. NPAG has seen some success in implementing these methods. While the CPA exam was changed in 2024 to be more personalized, including a section which examinees can choose based on their skills and interests rather than requiring all examinees to take the same exam, educational While data on the proportion of accounting majors working in specialty or adjacent fields is hard to find, the data that does exist at least superficially supports McLaren's statements. The number of accounting majors decreased substantially from 2020 to 2023, only to shoot back up in 2024. The number of CPAs nationwide remained mostly stable over that time, suggesting that a large proportion of accounting majors don't go on to become CPAs, and people receiving the CPA licensure are doing so for fields other than traditional accounting. Fixing the problem To address the ongoing talent shortage, the American Association of CPAs created the National Pipeline Advisory Group in July 2023. NPAG released a data-driven report identifying six key methods through LAW & ACCOUNTING F O C U S Karen Teitel, profes- sor at College of the Holy Cross Growth in accounting majors After dropping for the first few years of the 2020s, the number of accounting majors enrolled at American universities spiked in the last two years. 0 50K 100K 150K 200K 0 100K 200K 300K 400K 500K 600K 700K 800K '16 '19 '20 '21 '22 '23 '24 '20 '21 '22 '23 '24 '25 No. of accounting majors No. of CPAs Source: National Student Clearinghouse Research Center CPA growth in U.S. stagnating The number of certified public accountants in America has grown 1.1% since 2016. 0 50K 100K 150K 200K 0 100K 200K 300K 400K 500K 600K 700K 800K '16 '19 '20 '21 '22 '23 '24 '20 '21 '22 '23 '24 '25 No. of accounting majors No. of CPAs Source: National Association of State Board of Accountancy David McLaren, man- aging partner of Mc- Laren & Associates requirements have been slower to change, as those are set by the state. Massachusetts is yet to change its educational requirements for becoming a CPA, which consist of 150 credit hours of college coursework, including 30 credit hours of accountancy coursework and 24 credit hours in related fields such as mathematics, statistics, economics, or business administration, according to the Massachusetts Society of CPAs. Proposed legislation before the Massachusetts House of Representatives aims to allow students with a standard 120 credit hour bachelor's degree to substitute two years of work experience for the additional credit requirement, but it is yet to pass committee toward becoming law. As for enhancing the employee experience and business cultures, that's something that must be handled on a firm-by-firm basis, which firms are handling with varying degrees of success. "I know for Gen Z-ers, a big thing is that they want to have a community … They want to have a purpose," said McLaren. "We are seeing some firms listen, and some firms make the necessary changes, and some firms stick to the same-old, same-old." While it's not necessarily a method outlined by the NPAG report, technology, including AI, is being used to attempt to address the talent shortage, both locally and nationally, said Donah. While AI does mean the talent ceiling of entry-level accountants necessarily has to be higher, the detail-oriented nature of accounting work means that accountants, including entry- level accountants, are still necessary to check the computer or AI's work. However, the automated nature of the technology's work allows them to handle more accounts more quickly than an entry-level accountant previously could alone. "Things will have to change in the future to accommodate AI, due to how much it can streamline the work that used to be done by entry-level accountants," said Donah. IMAGE | ADOBESTOCK 4.9 Based on 193 Reviews 49 Main St. Sturbridge, MA 01566 www.ClearComIT.com/financial-services/ "Preferred IT vendor" of the Partner with ClearCom IT Solutions for responsive & reliable IT service and support for your firm. Give us a call! 508-205-21114 Your firm runs on precision and deadlines - you can't afford downtime, data breaches, or compliance missteps. We keep your systems secure, audit-ready, and running smoothly, so you can focus on clients, not IT. W

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