Trainee numbers are being squeezed despite demand for skilled staff, with the total number of trainees only growing by 2.8% in 2017 compared to an 18% rise in 2016, putting pressure on accounting firms. Philip Smith analyses the top 75 firms trainee numbers, salaries and qualifications by institute
There are currently more than 19,000 trainees passing through the top 75 accountancy firms in the UK, but that is only a 2.8% increase to 19,120 on last year’s figures, suggesting only a modest rate of growth in the coming years.
On the downside, this indicates a sharp slowdown on last year’s trainee numbers, which saw an 18% rise to 18,590 compared with Accountancy’s 2016 survey when 15,813 went through trainee programmes. There are clearly signs of the start of a slowdown in the recruitment of future accountants.
Although the number of trainees has climbed steadily since 2013, culminating in last year’s record rate of increase, cracks are beginning to emerge. PwC has seen its number of trainees drop from 3,836 last year to 3,625 in 2017, a 5.5% fall. Deloitte’s growth rate was only 0.5%, an increase of just 14 on last year’s figure of 3,000.
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