Accountancy hires to slow in 2013

The accountancy sector, which has recruited aggressively in recent years, is expected to slow down its hiring next year.

"As there have been far fewer [initial public offerings] this year, the recruitment in the industry will remain flat next year," said Keith Pogson, the president of the Hong Kong Institute of Certified Public Accountants, the city's industry body which has about 33,000 members.

Pogson told the South China Morning Post that the Big Four accounting firms - PwC, Ernst & Young, Deloitte and KPMG - together would hire about 1,000 fresh graduates in Hong Kong and about 7,000 to 8,000 on the mainland next year.

These numbers are similar to those last year, a reversal of the trend in past years when the industry has had to increase hiring levels every year in step with the growing demand for audit work as a result of a deluge of initial public offerings.

For the past three years, Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing has been the world's largest listing market in terms of the amounts raised. But it is likely to drop out of the top 10 this year. In the first eight months of this year, new listings raised less than HK$45 billion, compared with HK$190 billion in the same period last year, marking a 10-year low.

Brokers blame economic uncertainties in Europe and the slowdown in mainland China for the weak investment sentiment that has resulted in fewer listings.