For years, accounting struggled to shake a reputation for being dull and unrewarding. More than 300,000 accountants walked away from the profession between 2019 and 2022, leaving firms understaffed and contributing to costly reporting errors across the industry. Now the tide is turning.
AI tools that automate repetitive bookkeeping, better conversations around work-life balance, and falling barriers to entry have helped reshape the profession. Meanwhile, Gen Z graduates prioritising job security and competitive pay are seeing accounting in a new light.
The result is a surge in demand for young accounting talent. At the University of Iowa, 95% of the 2025 accounting class secured a job or went on to further study at median salaries of $75,000. The University of Texas, ranked number one for accounting by U.S. News & World Report, reports 96.5% of its professional accounting master’s graduates have accepted jobs within six months, earning a median of $80,000. At Illinois’ Gies College of Business, the figure is 97%, with a median starting salary of $82,000.
That kind of outcome stands out in a broader job market where graduates regularly send out dozens of applications. Entry-level accounting salaries now hover around $80,000, and some roles at major firms approach six figures.
AI is making the job easier, not redundant
Rather than threatening jobs, artificial intelligence is stripping away the most tedious parts of accounting — data entry, transaction reconciliation, record organisation. A Stanford Graduate School of Business study found accountants using AI tools support more clients per week and close monthly books 7.5 days faster than those using traditional methods, while spending 8.5% less time on back-office processing.
That shift lets early-career professionals spend more time on analysis and client-facing work. Ruth Mavashev, a 26-year-old CPA at a boutique tax firm, earns $113,000 after transitioning from finance into accounting. She describes the work as rewarding and demanding, with busy season running around 50 hours a week.
Total postsecondary accounting enrollment reached 313,397 students in 2025, up from 293,759 the year before, according to the National Student Clearinghouse Research Center. The enrolment decline has slowed dramatically — shrinking 6.6% in 2023–2024 compared to 9.6% the year prior — suggesting the profession’s pipeline may finally be stabilising.
While AI could theoretically handle a large portion of routine accounting tasks, adoption has been slower than expected due to legal constraints, technical hurdles, and the requirement for human sign-off. A CPA signature carries legal weight, and client relationships built over years cannot be automated.
“At the end of the day, there is going to need to be some human being signing off, or at least reviewing what the AI did.” — Jack Blazevich
As Blazevich, a newly qualified PwC associate in Chicago, puts it: even if the accounting labour market shrinks, the broader job market won’t. Accounting graduates can move into HR, sales, marketing, and finance — a flexibility few other degrees offer.