Ernst & Young moves to hire and keep staff

The shortage of skilled labour in Asia is one of the most challenging problems companies face. A survey of 600 chief executives in the region carried out by the Economist Intelligence Unit last year found that this issue ranked as their biggest concern.

Nowhere is this problem more apparent than in the professional fields, and accountants are in particularly short supply.

According to Loletta Chow Chiu-mei, partner and national people leader at Ernst & Young China, economic growth in the region has drained the pool of accountants and led to a huge shortfall. There are only 69,000 licensed, practicing accountants in the mainland, according to the Chinese Institute of Certified Public Accountants, but 300,000 accountants are needed to meet demand.

Demand for accountants has been driven by economic growth and the need to address the growing emphasis on governance and financial control in the country, which has come hand-in-hand with the arrival of multinational companies.

Ernst & Young is recruiting many graduates to train as accountants in an attempt to meet this shortfall. The firm increased its 2007 headcount in Hong Kong and the mainland by 26 per cent from the previous year, employing 2,500 new staff, 1,500 of whom were recruited from university campuses. Ms Chow predicted that a similar number of staff would be hired this year.

The company was constantly on the lookout for students with accountancy or business related majors, with a minimum grade point average of three, but was also starting to focus on recruiting experienced staff, Ms Chow said.