The Supply Shortage of Accounting Graduates in Indonesia: The Public Accounting Firms Perspective

Abstract

Although having abundant accounting graduates, Indonesia has a very low number of public accountants and accounting firms. This study investigates the difficulties of public accounting firms in Indonesia to recruit accounting staff. Partners or human resource managers from 35 public accounting firms were interviewed, and it was found that the majority of accounting firms facing difficulties in recruiting accounting staff both in quantity and the quality of fresh graduate. Three major problems were identified as the factors contributed to this difficulty. First, a low salary compared with other occupational streams. Second, the misinformation about the workload in public accounting firms. Third, students’ negative perception of public accounting profession which could be caused by the accounting education.


 


Keywords: supply, accounting graduates, accounting firms

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