YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio – The number of accounting graduates entering the workforce has increased over the past few years, according to educators and accounting professionals, but work remains to sustain that flow.
“I sit on the dean’s advisory council at [Youngstown State University], the Williamson College of Business, and the enrollment for the accounting program has definitely increased over the last couple years,” says Lisa Metzinger, a partner at Cohen & Co in Youngstown, Ohio. “I feel like we have a healthier pipeline than we did a couple years
ago.”
The company has offices across the country and Metzinger says the increase is consistent across them all.
Catie Cohn, campus recruiting lead at HBK CPAs and Consultants, says the firm attracts top talent to fill its intern and new hire ranks. But HBK is changing its strategy to match that of other firms.
“From our perspective, recruiting gets earlier and earlier,” she says.
The firm has offices in Canfield, Ohio, and Hermitage, Pa., as well as in other parts of Ohio and Pennsylvania, in other parts of the country and India. Cohn joined the firm last October.
“So with me joining the organization, I’m helping HBK become a little bit more in line with what our competitors do to recruit at the right times,” she says.
That means recruiting earlier.
“We’re absolutely still seeing the qualified candidates come through,” Cohn says. “We’re just kind of changing our recruiting strategies to align with what our competitors do, so that we’re meeting them at the right time and continuing to kind of get them in the pipeline.”
Christina O’Connell, executive director of the Center for Career Management at Youngstown State University’s Williamson College of Business Administration, says about 280 students are majoring in accounting this academic year.
“Our accounting number has increased over the last couple years in the number of majors that we have within that area,” she explains.
Accounting is the second largest major in the business college with business administration being the largest. Last year, roughly 262 YSU students were accounting majors. O’Connell says the number has been increasing slightly each year.
Many YSU accounting students secure internships that lead to second internships with the same firm and ultimately to a job offer, she says.
“We do have a pipeline within the Mahoning Valley firms,” O’Connell adds. “We do have several students, probably within an hour to an hour and a half of Youngstown as well, that will take public accounting internships in the spring.”
And the feedback YSU receives from the firms is positive.
“The firms tend to love our students,” O’Connell says. “Even when students go outside of the Youngstown area, our students are used to working [while] going through classes, so they know how to work. They’ve learned it in the classroom, and they’re prepared to utilize that knowledge in the internship as well.”
They excel at communication and working in teams, for example.
Metzinger says most of Cohen & Co.’s offices have a target school or schools from which it finds interns and ultimately new hires based on the strengths of those schools’ accounting programs. For the Youngstown office, it’s YSU.
“We have a great relationship with YSU,” she explains. “We try to be on campus as much as possible for all their events.”
Placement
YSU accounting graduates see high placement rates, O’Connell says. This past academic year saw about 75% placement for students within a month after graduation.
“Usually, by six months out, we’re normally close to 90%,” O’Connell says.
Accounting graduates from Thiel College in Greenville, Pa., also enjoy high placement rates. The college reported a 100% placement for accounting graduates for the 13th consecutive year.
Melissa Oakes, director of Thiel’s Business Administration and Accounting Department, says that percentage includes graduates who enter the workforce as well as those who enroll in graduate school.
The number of accounting students at Thiel also is on the upswing.
“I would say that it is going in an upward direction, which is exciting for all of us,” Oakes says.
She points to enrollment in a key accounting course in fall 2025 which saw 15 students, compared to fall 2026’s 19. The number has been increasing for the last few years. That includes both accounting students and those in the finance track, many of whom add accounting as a second major.
Firms Seek Students
Many Thiel students also serve internships at accounting firms across the region. That’s a source of pride for Oakes and her department.
“I feel like we’re small but mighty because we’re in Greenville – we’re not in a large city, but we have a lot of employers in the area that consistently come back to us,” she says.
Those firms want students’ resumes, requesting them in early fall to fill spring internships.
“They know that once we get to November, December, our students are picked up by other accounting firms or maybe in industry jobs,” Oakes says. “They are very quick to want to see our students’ resumes.”
Students at the college are encouraged to complete internships during their sophomore year.
“We actually moved our personal tax class to the fall semester,” Oakes says. “It used to be in the spring semester when they were sophomores, but we moved it back to the fall because then what happened was tax season is right after they take that course. So we found that we could get our students into the internship pipeline sooner. If they took that personal tax class in the fall, then they could go out in the spring and do those personal tax internships at local firms.”
Tiffany Crosby, senior vice president of the Ohio Society of Certified Public Accountants, says the number of accounting students has increased in all of the Ohio higher education institutions with which OSCPA is connected.
“Some have had to actually hire professors to offer additional classes, which is great,” she says. “And it’s coming from multiple places, multiple directions. It’s not just your typical traditional college student, but it’s also some that are coming back that maybe have majored in finance and now they’re switching to accounting.”
Legislative Change
She attributes some of that increase to a legislative change a few years ago regarding pathways for the profession. Beginning last January two options to earn a CPA became available for students.
According to the OSCPA website, one path requires a bachelor’s degree, completion of the required accounting concentration, two years of experience and passage of the CPA Exam. The second requires a master’s degree, the required accounting concentration, one year of experience and passage of the exam.
While getting a master’s degree still appeals to some, the first option allows students to work in the profession and earn money while preparing for the test, Crosby says.
How the pipeline to employment flows largely depends on the accounting sector an individual pursues, she says. Those interested in public accounting often opt for internships with firms that lead to jobs. Pathways into the workplace in other accounting sectors – industry, government and not-for-profit – also include internships, but those aren’t as mature as the internship channel for public accounting jobs is, the senior vice president explains.
More Work
Still, work remains to maintain a healthy flow of students entering accounting professions.
“I am excited about the inroads we’re making, absolutely, but we still have a lot of inroads to make,” Crosby says.
She points to what she calls the CPA retirement cliff as well as aging of those in the profession. While there’s been progress, the number of graduates entering the accounting workforce doesn’t keep pace with retirements, Crosby says, pointing to the time and requirements involved to earn a CPA. That’s shifted focus at some firms on the importance of retention, particularly of those early in their careers.
“There was some exiting of the accounting profession,” Crosby explains. “There has been a lot of focus now, though, on the environment, the culture, just the experiences that are held during those first four years, and so that is also improving. And all of these things are improving as we try, as we have an intentional focus on it.”
Metzinger says the retirement cliff hasn’t been an issue at Cohen & Co. as the CEO and senior leaders are younger than 50.
The firm does hire large classes of people, across all offices. It hires interns during its spring busy season and during the summer.
“We do it because we want to make offers to these people,” Metzinger says. “We already put in the investment to teach them, and they do the same work that a new hire would do.”
Cohn of HBK says her role centralizes the campus recruiting process. HBK mostly hires tax interns with a few in assurance. In the spring, interns go through tax preparer training.
“They’re really getting not only the training but also the experience that is super applicable and beneficial for them,” Cohn says.
Busy Season
Daniel R. Thomas, market leader and regional director for HBK in Canfield, says late January through April 15 marks a busy season for the firm allowing spring interns to get a good feel for working at HBK.
“I would say that’s really what we also try to push them to do because if you could do a spring internship here, and then we ask you to come back for a second internship, there’s a good chance that you’re probably going to be offered a full-time position,” he says.
HBK also emphasizes to interns that school is the most important thing for them and the firm works to be flexible, Thomas says.
“We also let them know if they want to work overtime, we work Saturdays here during busy season,” he says. “We try to make it as flexible as we can for them. If they have a two-hour class Monday and Wednesday and they want to come back because we’re working late, we are open to that.”
Artificial Intelligence
While artificial intelligence is affecting all industries with reports that entry level jobs are most impacted, Thomas says the technology hasn’t changed the way the firm works with interns. You can’t remove the human element from accounting, he says.
Clients like to have someone working directly with them, Thomas explains.
“There’s so much consulting and planning work that goes into our job anymore,” he says. “The majority of my job is consulting and being on the phone with the clients.”
Metzinger of Cohen & Co. offers a similar view.
“It’s definitely not going to replace a human connection, even with the software that we’re using,” she says. “And there’s always a human point.”
That includes working with clients as well as verifying data compiled by AI.
“Now, will what they do coming in change? Likely, but it’ll be more of an elevated level,” Metzinger says of interns and new hires. “I feel like they’ll also be able to accelerate careers a little bit faster, relying on AI to help with that.”
Thomas says working with clients makes up a large and critical part of what HBK does.
“And what we as partners and what I need to do is to train these younger people to do that – to have them involved in meetings with us, with the clients, to get them interfacing with clients, to learn how to to do this, because this right here is a big part of it,” Thomas explains. “It’s the communication and working with them.”
Clients trust the HBK staff they work with. “We know everything about them, and it’s a very big part of their lives.”
Participating in client meetings provides new associates and college students with vital experience so they can eventually take over those accounts and keep the clients within HBK, Thomas adds.
