Accountants and Auditors
Business, Management and AdministrationO*NET 13-2011.00United States
Examine, analyze, and interpret accounting records to prepare financial statements, give advice, or audit and evaluate statements prepared by others. Install or advise on systems of recording costs or other financial and budgetary data.
- Median annual earnings
- $83,670
- Projected change
- +7.4%
- Typical education
- Bachelor's degree
- Employment
- 1.61M jobs
50th percentile, United States
2025 to 2035
43.6% of the workforce
Growing to 1.73M by 2035
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The work
What accountants and auditors do
Tasks reported for this occupation, ordered by how often they come up in the role.
- Prepare detailed reports on audit findings.
- Report to management about asset utilization and audit results, and recommend changes in operations and financial activities.
- Collect and analyze data to detect deficient controls, duplicated effort, extravagance, fraud, or non-compliance with laws, regulations, and management policies.
- Inspect account books and accounting systems for efficiency, effectiveness, and use of accepted accounting procedures to record transactions.
- Supervise auditing of establishments, and determine scope of investigation required.
- Confer with company officials about financial and regulatory matters.
- Examine and evaluate financial and information systems, recommending controls to ensure system reliability and data integrity.
- Inspect cash on hand, notes receivable and payable, negotiable securities, and canceled checks to confirm records are accurate.
- Examine records and interview workers to ensure recording of transactions and compliance with laws and regulations.
- Prepare, examine, or analyze accounting records, financial statements, or other financial reports to assess accuracy, completeness, and conformance to reporting and procedural standards.
- Prepare adjusting journal entries.
- Review accounts for discrepancies and reconcile differences.
- Establish tables of accounts and assign entries to proper accounts.
- Examine inventory to verify journal and ledger entries.
- Analyze business operations, trends, costs, revenues, financial commitments, and obligations to project future revenues and expenses or to provide advice.
- Report to management regarding the finances of establishment.
- Develop, implement, modify, and document recordkeeping and accounting systems, making use of current computer technology.
- Evaluate taxpayer finances to determine tax liability, using knowledge of interest and discount rates, annuities, valuation of stocks and bonds, and amortization valuation of depletable assets.
- Examine whether the organization's objectives are reflected in its management activities, and whether employees understand the objectives.
- Audit payroll and personnel records to determine unemployment insurance premiums, workers' compensation coverage, liabilities, and compliance with tax laws.
Pay and outlook
What the job pays and where it is heading
Annual earnings range
Reported earnings by percentile, United States
- 10th percentile
- $53,953
- 25th percentile
- $65,699
- 50th percentile
- $83,670
- 75th percentile
- $114,243
- 90th percentile
- $155,954
The gold marker shows the median. Half earn more than $83,670 and half earn less.
Employment outlook
2025 to 2035 projection
+7.4%faster than average
20251,607,146 jobs
2035 projected1,725,968 jobs
118,822 more positions over the decade, before replacement hiring.
Preparation
Education levels
What people currently working in the career hold. These are not entry requirements.
- Bachelor's degree
- 43.6%
- Some college
- 39.5%
- Associate degree
- 14.1%
- Master's or Professional degree
- 2.8%
Skills
Skills employers ask for
Technical skills appearing most often in job postings for this occupation.
How the work gets done
Core competencies
Broad capabilities associated with strong performance in this occupation.
- Reading Comprehension
- Understanding written sentences and paragraphs in work-related documents.
- Critical Thinking
- Using logic and reasoning to identify the strengths and weaknesses of alternative solutions, conclusions, or approaches to problems.
- Active Listening
- Giving full attention to what other people are saying, taking time to understand the points being made, asking questions as appropriate, and not interrupting at inappropriate times.
- Speaking
- Talking to others to convey information effectively.
- Judgment and Decision Making
- Considering the relative costs and benefits of potential actions to choose the most appropriate one.
- Writing
- Communicating effectively in writing as appropriate for the needs of the audience.
- Monitoring
- Monitoring/Assessing performance of yourself, other individuals, or organizations to make improvements or take corrective action.
- Complex Problem Solving
- Identifying complex problems and reviewing related information to develop and evaluate options and implement solutions.
- Mathematics
- Using mathematics to solve problems.
- Coordination
- Adjusting actions in relation to others' actions.
- Active Learning
- Understanding the implications of new information for both current and future problem-solving and decision-making.
- Social Perceptiveness
- Being aware of others' reactions and understanding why they react as they do.
- Service Orientation
- Actively looking for ways to help people.
- Time Management
- Managing one's own time and the time of others.
- Persuasion
- Persuading others to change their minds or behavior.
- Systems Evaluation
- Identifying measures or indicators of system performance and the actions needed to improve or correct performance, relative to the goals of the system.
- Systems Analysis
- Determining how a system should work and how changes in conditions, operations, and the environment will affect outcomes.
- Negotiation
- Bringing others together and trying to reconcile differences.
- Learning Strategies
- Selecting and using training/instructional methods and procedures appropriate for the situation when learning or teaching new things.
- Instructing
- Teaching others how to do something.
In the market
Job titles and employers
Recent job postings in United StatesCommon job titles
- 01Accountants43,651 postings
- 02Staff Accountants27,261 postings
- 03Tax Accountants5,013 postings
- 04Project Accountants4,259 postings
- 05Auditors4,095 postings
- 06Cost Accountants3,805 postings
- 07Audit Managers3,554 postings
- 08Internal Auditors3,342 postings
- 09Property Accountants2,559 postings
- 10Accounting Interns2,488 postings
- 11Accounting Associates2,423 postings
- 12Merchandisers2,317 postings
- 13Revenue Accountants1,716 postings
- 14Accounting Managers1,502 postings
- 15Internal Audit Managers1,381 postings
- 16Corporate Accountants1,379 postings
- 17Accountants/Bookkeepers1,357 postings
- 18Quality Auditors1,334 postings
- 19Audit Associates1,313 postings
- 20Fund Accountants1,247 postings
Top employers
- 01Robert Half19,297 postings
- 02GPAC4,427 postings
- 03Creative Financial Staffing4,204 postings
- 04Lee Hecht Harrison3,173 postings
- 05Vaco2,461 postings
- 06Ccmi2,368 postings
- 07Staff Financial Group2,305 postings
- 08Aston Carter1,831 postings
- 09CFS1,613 postings
- 10Beacon Hill Staffing Group1,296 postings
- 11Jobot1,221 postings
- 12Ledgent1,010 postings
- 13CliftonLarsonAllen774 postings
- 14Intuit727 postings
- 15Datavant708 postings
- 16Randstad661 postings
- 17AppleOne635 postings
- 18Capital One612 postings
- 19Forvis Mazars559 postings
- 20Addison Group555 postings
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