Recruiting Market Report - March 2024

​​Find out what we are hearing from candidates and clients and get our predictions for the future of the hiring market in the March 2024 edition of The ASP Team Market Report:

Quinn Finnigan - Recruiting Services Leader

Joss Stokke - Recruiting Practice Leader

What are we hearing from candidates?
"Bonus is less important to me now" - We've noticed over the last several months that an increasing number of candidates are putting less weight on bonus potential when seeking new positions. The reason why usually sounds something like this, "I had a bonus potential in my old/current job, but it didn't get paid out so I'm not putting much credence in that part of a compensation offer." This is likely due to the number of companies that struggled during the pandemic and means hiring managers should be push the base salary lever up and the bonus lever down.

What are we hearing from clients?
"Accounting software experience matters" - For years now there have been three tiers of accounting software candidates can have experience with: Tier 3 - QuickBooks (desktop, pro, online); Tier 2 - industry specific software like Yardi and Sage, Tier 1 - the big names like Oracle, NetSuite, Dynamics. Recently, our clients have been asking more for candidates who have direct experience with the software they use while in years past they've been open to someone with experience in the same tier. As the software gets more complex and more tailored to each individual client this comes as no surprise.

What am I feeling about the hiring market?
Wage growth is flipping - finally! A recent economics  podcast titled We're Seeing a Fundamental Reorganization of Work in America talked about the trends of real wage growth and focused on the last couple of years since the pandemic. It noted that wage growth for top earners (Controller positions and higher) has largely leveled out, while wage growth at the bottom (A/P, A/R, Payroll, Bookkeepers) is seeing the biggest growth. We're seeing this in the PNW hiring market as well which is a welcome sign because both candidate pools are happy with the situation. The Controller+ pool knows they're being compensated very well after a few years of growth and the foundational accountants are happy to be experiencing growth. It's great for hiring when both ends of the candidate pool are happy with wages!

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ASP Hiring Statistics - 2024
27 - Days to Place (avg.)
$168,788 - Avg. Placed Controller Salary
33% - Percent of Diversity Hires
82% - Percent of time we get interviews for our clients

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Recent Placements
Director of Finance - Manufacturing - Redmond, WA
Sr. Accounting Manager - Manufacturing - Vancouver, WA
Director of Finance - Nonprofit - Lakewood, WA

View Our Current Openings

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Top Candidates
Take a look at some examples of accounting and finance candidates we are working with currently.

View Our Top Candidates

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Hiring Smarter with The ASP Team

Check out the latest episode of our accounting and finance recruiting podcast!

Episode 2 - Negotiating Compensation