The labout market for accountants is stretched very tight at the moment. More accountants, especially those with 3-7 yrs experience are highly sought after. Despite all this, the top 100 accounting firms grew profits by an average of 12.9% last year! Accoutants named the priorities for the year ahead:

• Finding and retaining staff (52%)
• Increasing profitability (14%)
• Solving succession problems (10%)
• Managing work/life balance (8%)
• Merging acquiring other practices (7%)
• Increasing revenue (5%)
• Keeping up with legislative change (3%)
• Increasing profile (1%)

From an article in BRW July-28-August 3 2005, pg 20