Continuing their recent steady climb, accounting and finance jobs collectively rose in the latest annual ranking of the strongest fields for work-from-home roles, according to an analysis of job posting data from Boulder, Colorado-based FlexJobs.
Consistently in the top 10 career categories with remote-friendly jobs, accounting and finance ranked second place this year, up from third in 2023, having steadily risen from sixth in 2020, according to Keith Spencer, a career expert at FlexJobs, an online platform for flexible work job seekers.
Only the computer and IT job category outranked accounting and finance, while marketing came in third, followed by the medical and health category in fourth and project management in the fifth slot, according to FlexJobs’ “Top 100 Companies Companies to Watch for Remote Jobs in 2024” which is based on an analysis of more than 60,000 companies and their remote job postings for calendar year 2023.
“As a career category, accounting and finance has provided a steady stream of remote work opportunities over the past few years,” Spencer wrote in an emailed response to questions from CFO Dive.
Salaries in the category vary greatly, depending on factors including experience, education, location and company, he said, noting that his firm does not track salary data for remote work. The 2022 median pay was $78,000 for accountants and auditors and $96,220 for financial analysts, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.
The growing remote-friendly attitude toward accounting and finance is one solution that some firms are tapping into to address the hiring challenges stemming from a shrinking talent pool and fewer college students choosing to go into accounting field. Indeed, some companies are getting their audits done and closing their books with the help of offshore workers in India and the Philippines, CFO Dive previously reported.
At the same time, some companies in the banking sector are holding on to the traditional in-office roles, touting the value of face-time and in person collaboration. For example, Bank of America has sent letters warning employees who are not meeting the bank’s office attendance policy of potential disciplinary action, the Financial Times reported.
While companies within the banking industry might be requiring employees to return to the office, accounting and finance roles are not exclusive to the banking industry, Spencer said. Accountants and financial analysts, for example, are employed by a wide variety of sectors including healthcare, insurance, telecommunications and even manufacturing and retail.
The versatility of these roles and the ability for the work to be done remotely contributes to accounting and finance, as a career category, continuing to provide steady remote opportunities, he wrote, noting a few reasons why accounting is a popular out-of-office position.
“Many of the primary job duties and responsibilities, such as overseeing financial records and documentation, analyzing data, and managing financial operations, are tasks that can easily be performed in a remote environment,” Spencer said. “Additionally, because accountants can take on a range of specialized roles ––financial accounting, auditing, budgeting, government accounting, forensic accounting, certified public accounting, and so on — they’re able to find opportunities with both private and government employers.”
What about some leads for would-be remote accountants? Employers such as employment agency Kforce, the outsourced bookkeeping company Supporting Strategies and the career transition services firm LHH are among the employers that have hired remote accounting talent in the past, he said. But, he cautioned: “It’s impossible to predict how companies will hire in the future.”
