Atrium Staffing has noticed more companies hiring accountants, particularly from CPA firms.
Peter Kitchin, director of the finance and accounting practice at the firm, said they specialize in placing people, CPAs in particular, in the corporate world.
“Certainly there’s a fairly significant uptick in activity from a finance and accounting recruitment perspective, of individuals transitioning out of the Big Four,” he said. “They’re using that expertise and building on that in the corporate world.”
During the first two quarters of 2011 Atrium has placed three times as many permanent finance and accounting jobs than all of 2010. In the first two quarters of 2011, Atrium's F&A business more than doubled across both temporary and permanent placements compared to 2010.
With the doubling of business within the Finance & Accounting division, Atrium is adding three additional full-time placement counselors, including a former CPA turned recruiting professional, to manage the growth and place more F&A candidates.
“CPAs are coming out of public accounting into all sorts of businesses, the common theme being organizations outside the professional sectors environment,” said Kitchin. “It’s very specific to mid-management in the mid-tier. I would say the executive portion of that marketplace is certainly increasing on a month by month basis at the moment. The economy certainly is a driver of this. A lot of organizations from a recruitment perspective have been in hibernation for the last few years. But on a month by month basis we’re seeing huge levels of activity.”
The trend has been especially significant in midcap size firms, rather than recruitment in the Fortune 500 environment, he added. “We’re seeing it in entrepreneurial firms, with the advent of digital media and e-commerce,” said Kitchin.
His firm has been placing CPAs looking to make the transition into the corporate environment, particularly at midcap companies. Over the past 18 months to two years, Atrium has been expanding its recruitment drive. The company now operates a network of offices across the East Coast, where recruitment is especially heavy in New York and New Jersey. The company also opened an office in San Francisco in June.
