In June 2018, the UWV published the annual national survey on vacancies that are difficult to fill in 2019. The survey reports the following on accountants and tax specialists.

“Assistant accountants, AA accountants, and chartered accountants are engaged for, among other things, audits/audits and the preparation of annual accounts. They also act as a consultant to the business community. Due to economic prosperity, demand is growing, but it is difficult to fill vacancies. HBO’s are the hardest to find, directly followed by academics. This is partly because no or too few starters were hired during the crisis years. It should be noted that the accounting profession has become less attractive among young people because the larger accountancy firms, in particular, received less positive news in the news, but also because of the high workload at these large firms. There is a great need for people with knowledge of reporting standards and data analysis techniques (BI). There is also a demand for IT auditors, for example. This field was initially referred to as EDP auditing (Electronic Data Processing), a specialization within the accounting profession. As automated information systems increasingly take over the processing of administrative processes, organizations want to make sure that financial reporting is done carefully.

Demand for accountants may decline due to ongoing digitization. But this does not happen overnight. In addition, the improving economy creates an additional need for business and tax advice. The job description is gradually changing: the emphasis is shifting more towards advising, but to date, a large part of the work still consists of administrative services and compilation and auditing activities for the annual accounts. Automation of financial processes ensures that the emphasis within finance is increasingly on translating data into useful reports and advice. Organizations need people who have advisory and contact skills in order to make the link between it and finance. In addition, vacancies for tax advisers (tax specialists) are also difficult to fill. This concerns, for example, specialists in the field of sales tax or “transfer pricing”. Multilingualism is also becoming increasingly important. ” See more extensively: https://www.uwv.nl/overuwv/Images/moeilijk-vervulbare-vacatures-2019.pdf