Optimism on the rise in accounting and finance careers: Everjobs career report

Monday, 28 September 2015 00:00 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

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The accounting and finance profession has had a tumultuous few years, full of administrative and financial regulation amends, organisational shifts, and changes in hiring practices. This, in turn, has led to some confusion or even scepticism about potential job opportunities in the accounting and financial services sector in Sri Lanka.

However, new data from the Everjobs Sri Lanka career report shows that accounting and financial services jobs are growing at a swift rate, followed by customer support, IT, management and sales jobs.

The latest edition of the Everjobs career report is assembled by monitoring the traffic on Everjobs.lk over the past six months. After starting with market predictions and a list of occupations projected to grow, the team used the outcomes from focus group sessions to refine the findings into a usable report.

“Job growth in financial services is expected to outpace job growth for all occupations in 2015,” said Everjobs Sri Lanka Country Manager Niels van Klooster. “This is good news for jobseekers in the sector, whose skills will be in-demand across a range of businesses and occupations that typically offer highly-competitive wages,” he added.

A strong supply of accounting and finance professionals is essential to serve the complex demands of rapidly changing business environments and meet the needs of firms of all sizes for top quality talent. The growing complexity of financial information involved in the ever expanding startup ecosystem in Sri Lanka is also driving new growth in the accounting and financial services.

Niels added, “The job descriptions of the increasing number of job postings in financial services suggest that companies are more determined to find applicants who are not only comfortable with financial needs and deadlines, but also possesses skills in writing, communication and people management.”

“Employers are increasingly looking to hire people with advanced degrees and professional qualifications, as they have the education and skills necessary to work in an increasingly complex, global business environment,” read a testimonial from a career coach from the recently concluded EDEX Mid-Year Expo 2015. It added that, “The best way to ensure that the profession has the necessary talent to fill these positions is to recruit the best and brightest young minds and make certain that employers work to retain them.”