Low-end accounting and bookkeeping jobs fell by 13 percent from 2007 through 2012. During the same period, accounting and auditing jobs rose by 3 percent, according to Steve King, a partner with Emergent Research.
King presented the statistics at this week's Intuit Influencer Summit in Silicon Valley. He discussed overall job trends and noted the sharp drop in many job areas that have traditionally provided middle-class incomes. Generally, routine positions are decreasing. The number for those who use computers are declining while "the number of those who tell computers what to do are growing," he said.
The trend will continue in the accounting business, he said. "The reason these jobs are falling is the related work is also falling," King said. As a result of these trends, "We see the need to shift to value added services of accountant," he said. "You move from a world where your job is providing information to one where your job is about providing ah-ha's".
Bob Scott has provided information to the tax and accounting community since 1991, first as technology editor of Accounting Today, and from 1997 through 2009 as editor of its sister publication, Accounting Technology. He is known throughout the industry for his depth of knowledge and for his high journalistic standards. Scott has made frequent appearances as a speaker, moderator and panelist and events serving tax and accounting professionals. He has a strong background in computer journalism as an editor with two former trade publications, Computer+Software News and MIS Week and spent several years with weekly and daily newspapers in Morris County New Jersey prior to that. A graduate of Indiana University with a degree in journalism, Bob is a native of Madison, Ind