The accounting and finance talent pool is shrinking. An IMA survey found 11% of people in finance-related jobs plan to exit the field within the next year. And 16.9% fewer students received bachelors’ degrees in accounting than did a decade ago, according to the AICPA’s Trends survey.

The talent drain is making it harder for CFOs to staff their finance functions. An Avalara survey found 84% of CFOs in the US and UK are contending with a talent shortage in accounting and finance.

But there are some steps CFOs can take to improve their chances of recruiting and retaining accounting and finance personnel—and perhaps change perceptions of the field along the way.

Automation, and now AI, can perform the more tedious tasks of the finance function, freeing staff to focus more on strategy and analysis. That can make for happier staff, who will be more likely to stay, and can make roles more attractive to prospective hires, experts told CFO Brew.

Want more on how automation can mitigate the talent crunch? Click here.—CV

There’s a vast world of incredible talent out there, but international hiring can be costly, time-consuming, and a little intimidating.

Luckily, Deel’s Complete Guide on International Hiring is here to transform your limited, localized hiring pool into a global one.

Deel simplified an entire planet’s worth of global hiring capabilities into one platform. Yep, really. And their new guide explores exactly what it takes to find, hire, and pay international talent.

In the full guide, you’ll get a crash course in:

• proven international hiring strategies
• how international payroll works
• common compliance issues to stay ahead of

It’s time to go global. Learn more.

Ugh, daylight savings time. For the record, we hate it, too. That cruel, late autumn irony gets us every time: Yes, the holidays are right around the corner, but oh, look at that, it’s suddenly pitch black just as you are finishing up your afternoon coffee.

But as any glass-half-full kinda person will tell you, daylight saving has something to do with old-timey energy efficiency and candles, and blah blah blah. Too bad that when DST ends, seasonal depression starts.

Yet that old inkling in the back of our minds—that time change has something to do with work and saving money on energy—now has some modern day justifications.

Business management company Venture Smarter examined Bureau of Labor Statistics data to determine which industries are most likely to see a financial boost from changing the clocks.

Click here to continue reading.—NP

The economy did not have as many jobs as expected in October, but business leaders may have cause to be optimistic.

Nonfarm payrolls increased by 150,000 in October, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), but the rise fell short of the 170,000 analysts were anticipating, CNBC reported. Meanwhile, the unemployment rate rose slightly to 3.9%, despite expectations that it would hold at 3.8%.

“After years of incredible strength, the labor market could finally be slowing. The topline miss, plus downward revisions and higher unemployment, deliver a strong message to [Chair] Jerome Powell and the Fed,” David Russell, global head of market strategy at TradeStation, told CNBC. “Further tightening is now highly unlikely, and rate cuts could be back on the table next year.”

The BLS noted that one factor contributing to these numbers was the strike activity across different industries, such as manufacturing. It also revised its numbers from the previous two months, reporting nonfarm payroll employment was down by 62,000 to 165,000 in August and down by 39,000 to 297,000 in September.

Click here to read HR Brew’s story on October’s job numbers.—AS

Today’s top finance reads.

Stat: $2 billion. That’s how much Disney added to its cost-cutting measures, bringing the total budget reduction to $7.5 billion. The company saw profit growth and exceeded digital subscriber forecasts in the latest quarter but saw a drop in ad revenue. (CNBC)

Quote: “We don’t expect to see a general deflation trend in China—we expect, in a year from now, inflation to be squarely in the positive territory.”—Gita Gopinath, deputy managing director of the IMF, on falling prices in China, which could signal deflation across the Chinese economy. (the New York Times)

Read: In the wake of WeWork’s collapse, it turns out founder Adam Neumann might still be in line for a big payday. (the Wall Street Journal)

Hire the world’s best: Get the scoop on hiring abroad with Deel’s Complete Guide on International Hiring. It’s a crash course on everything from finding the best global talent to staying compliant. Get it here.*

^{*A message from our sponsor.}