When it comes to the accounting shortage, much attention has been paid to the pipeline and to employers struggle to hire qualified staff. But another factor exacerbating the shortage deserves more attention: turnover. A new survey by the Illinois CPA Society (ICPAS) sheds light on the causes of turnover, where employees go once they leave, and what employers can do to improve retention.

Turnover at CPA firms averages 15%, according to an INSIDE Public Accounting report, and turnover at professional services firms, including the Big Four accounting firms, averaged 13.4% in 2022.

Turnover can lead to increased workloads for staff of all levels, and work can “trickle up” as well as down, the ICPAS survey found.

That’s a concern, Geoffrey Brown, president and CEO of ICPAS, told CFO Brew, because it can prove discouraging to younger staff. Younger professionals from smaller firms in Illinois, he said, told him they saw new partners doing senior- or manager-level work, and it made them question whether there was an “incentive” to advance at their firms, he said, adding that these are “people they should be looking to for models of where they can go career-wise.”

Click here for more on retaining accountants.—CV

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We hate to admit it, but it’s officially starting to feel like 2024. Those New Year’s resolutions already seem stale (sorry, daily yoga and kale smoothies), but at least writing “2024” on checks feels a little more natural now.

It’s all to be expected. Another thing we can anticipate at this point in January: CFO predictions for the year ahead.

And, look at that, now we have them: Yesterday, Deloitte released its Q4 2023 CFO Signals survey, which polled 124 American, Canadian, and Mexican CFOs on their plans and expectations for 2024.

The topline finding was a little sour: CFOs in most regions lowered their full-year economic forecasts, and their confidence about their own companies’ financial strength also dipped from the previous quarter.

“It’s an interesting data set, as it relates to the economy,” Steve Gallucci, global and US leader of Deloitte’s CFO Program, told CFO Brew. “When you take a step back and try to look at the forest through the trees, what you’re seeing is a continued stubbornness of the major forces that are driving the economy.”

For more on how CFOs are feeling about 2024, click here.—NP

2023 was a busy year for the bankruptcy courts. Commercial Chapter 11 filings rose 72% in 2023 over 2022, to 6,569, bankruptcy data provider Epiq reported. The number of business filings as a whole grew by 19%, to 25,627. And S&P Global Intelligence data showed 591 corporate bankruptcy filings through November 2023, making it one of the most active years since 2011.

But the rise in bankruptcies was to be expected, various experts said, given the spike in interest rates, the tight lending market, and the end of pandemic relief.

“As anticipated, we saw new filings in 2023 increase momentum over 2022 with a significant number of commercial filers leading the expected increase and normalization back to pre-pandemic bankruptcy volumes,” Michael Hunter, VP of Epiq AACER, said in a statement.

Many companies borrowed heavily during the era of lower interest rates, and continued to accumulate debt during the post-pandemic years, Brigham Young University law professor Brook Gotberg told NPR. Now debt-saddled companies are finding themselves low on cash, but are contending with high interest rates and lenders who are reluctant to extend them credit, NPR reported. Some have been forced to file for bankruptcy.

For more on rising bankruptcies, click here.—CV

Today’s top finance reads.

Stat: 9%. That’s about how much Boeing’s stock dropped after a door panel fell out of the side of one of its planes midflight, giving us all nightmare fuel for the next decade. (the New York Times)

Quote: “I’m not going to tell you exactly what they do, but I can tell you they do a lot more than $30 billion.”—Jamie Salter, founder and CEO of brand management firm Authentic Brands, on Chinese fast fashion giant Shein’s revenue. If the $30 billion figure is accurate, Shein would be worth more than competitor H&M. (CNBC)

Read: A new Department of Labor rule requires companies to treat contractors who are “economically dependent” on them as employees. The rule, which could substantially increase labor costs for some companies, goes into effect on March 11. (Reuters)

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