The most in-demand remote companies hiring for are not technology-related, as you might expect. Accountant is the hottest work from home job on the market right now.
Accountants earned the top spot in FlexJobs’ annual ranking of the best remote jobs in the U.S., thanks to growing demand for these skilled professionals in several industries, including finance, healthcare and government.
The shortage of accountants in the United States — driven by the retirement of baby boomers and a sharp decline in the number of students enrolled in accounting programs — has led companies to offer more remote or hybrid accounting roles as a way to fill the gap.
“It’s an industry under tremendous pressure to attract new generations of talent to modernize and reimagine roles, to improve work-life balance, and remote work is the number one way to reassure people that you’re giving them some degree of ‘independence and flexibility,’” says Julia Pollack, chief economist at ZipRecruiter. For CNBC Make It.
Demand for accountants has outpaced the finance and consulting sectors in recent years, partly due to rapidly evolving tax systems and financial reporting standards. At ZipRecruiter, the share of open accountant roles that were remote jumped from about 8% in 2019 to nearly 20% in 2023, according to data shared with CNBC Make It.
Overall, the number of accountant jobs is expected to grow by at least 4% over the next decade, with more than 15,000 jobs added each year, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reports.
“Compliance, and having good accountants, is now more important than ever, because industry regulation touches almost every area of business, meaning organizations are exposed to more financial and reputational risks,” explains Pollack. “There’s too much oversight…You can’t take legal responsibility for screwing this up.”
Many of accountants’ core job responsibilities — such as managing financial records, analyzing data, and preparing tax returns — can easily be done remotely, says Tony Vrana, senior recruiting expert at FlexJobs.
Accounting has “long been considered” one of the strongest fields for remote work, Vrana says, adding that she expects to see an imminent rise in job opportunities as remote accountants before tax season.
At FlexJobs, some of the top companies hiring for remote accounting roles include Kforce, Supporting Strategies, and Lee Hecht Harrison (LHH).
Most jobs require a bachelor’s degree in accounting or a related field, as well as certification in a specific field of accounting, such as becoming a licensed certified public accountant, according to the BLS.
While the average salary for accountants in the United States is about $68,000, according to ZipRecruiter data, the most experienced accountants earn between $150,000 to more than $200,000 annually.
Although Bloomberg reports that the Big Four accounting firms — KPMG, PWC, EY and Deloitte — will collectively cut thousands of jobs in 2023, such layoffs are rare, Pollack says.
“As an accountant, you are a highly valued employee, so the risk of being laid off is very low,” she points out. “You’re a trusted member of the inner circle, you see all the dirt and you get the company out of trouble – it’s a very important and stable job.”
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