Survey on shortage of accounting professionals in Hong Kong

In 2023, the Institute conducted a survey among our members to gain insights into the  shortage of accounting professionals in Hong Kong . The survey aimed to identify the challenges in attracting and retaining accounting professionals, and to explore solutions for enhancing talent acquisition.

Highlights of the survey findings:                                                                           

1. Impact of talent shortage: 61% of the respondents ranked the extent of impact at 7 or above (where 1 represents no impact and 10 indicates severe adverse effects); with 25% of them indicating a rating of 9 or above. These findings underscore the substantial impact of the talent shortage issue.
   
   
2. Vacancy rate: Approximately one third (32%) of the respondents stated that their companies or organizations currently have a vacancy rate of over 10% for accounting and finance-related positions. Twelve percent of the respondents reported a vacancy rate of over 30%. Among PAIPs, 10% of them have a vacancy rate of over 50%, highlighting the magnitude of the talent shortage challenge.
   
   
3. Recruitment process: Around 23% of the respondents took at least 7 months or above to fill the accounting and finance-related positions. Among PAIPs, 28% took over 1 year to fill the positions, indicating the difficulties in recruitment. In specific, 62% of PAIPs revealed that the recruitment of junior-level staff posed the greatest difficulty to them.
   
   
4. Utilization of existing talent schemes: 42% of the respondents had applied for the Quality Migrant Admission Scheme (QMAS), the Admission Scheme for Mainland Talents and Professionals (ASMTP) or the General Employment Policy (GEP). Approximately one third of the respondents applied for the Immigration Arrangements for Non-local Graduates (IANG).
   
   
5. Potential measures to improve the schemes: 66% of the respondents agreed that including the accounting profession in the Talent List would help attract accounting professionals. 73% of respondents acknowledged that students from the GBA constitute a readily accessible talent pool and 81% supported expanding the scope of IANG to include the Institute's accredited programmes in the GBA. While over 60% of respondents expressed support for providing subsidies to Mainland China students pursuing the Qualification Programme (QP) as an effective means to attract talent, some respondents expressed concerns regarding fairness to the local students.

Based on the survey findings, three proposed initiatives, including the inclusion of the accounting professional in the Talent List, were submitted to the FSTB for their consideration.