"1,200 Selected but Over Half Remain Unemployed"... Unassigned Accountants Voice Their Anger

Emergency Committee for Normalizing CPA Selections Holds Protest in Front of Government Seoul Office Building on the 14th
"Policy Failure Responsible, Selection Numbers Must Be Normalized"
"Decline in Audit Quality Could Trigger Capital Market Crisis"

Unassigned trainee accountants who have not been able to secure practical training positions criticized the financial authorities for expanding the number of Certified Public Accountant selections without considering actual workforce demand. They called for normalizing the scale of CPA selections and ensuring eligibility for practical training for unassigned accountants.

The Emergency Committee for Normalizing the Number of Certified Public Accountant Selections held a protest in front of the Government Seoul Office Building on the 14th. Photo by the reader

The Emergency Committee for Normalizing the Number of Certified Public Accountant Selections, which consists of unassigned trainee accountants and others, held a protest in front of the Government Seoul Office Building on the 14th to make these claims. Those who pass the CPA exam can only become fully qualified accountants after gaining hands-on experience, such as external audits, at accounting firms or other training institutions. The committee estimates that more than half of this year’s 1,200 successful candidates have not been able to find a training position.

The committee attributed the unassigned accountant crisis to misguided policies by the financial authorities. They stated, “Under the pretext of reflecting private sector demand, the financial authorities drastically increased the number of selections from the previous 1,000 or so to 1,200. However, only 6% of private companies are interested in hiring trainee accountants, and accounting firms have already said they cannot accommodate and train more than 1,000 new recruits. This was a very shortsighted policy.”

They also argued that the unassigned accountant situation could lead to instability in the capital market. The lack of qualified accountants could lower audit quality, causing investors to lose trust in companies’ financial information. The committee warned, “If the credibility of audits, which underpin trust in financial statements, is undermined, it could require large amounts of public funds to be injected again, just like during the 2022 Legoland incident. We cannot even predict what butterfly effects this might trigger in the capital market, so we are issuing this advance warning.”

They urged the financial authorities to “immediately abandon the policy of increasing selections based on inaccurate demand forecasts and normalize the number of selections according to the capacity of accounting firms.” They also insisted that “when deciding future selection numbers, the opinions of certified public accountants must be reflected to establish a long-term workforce plan.” Furthermore, they emphasized, “The training currently provided by the Korean Institute of Certified Public Accountants to unassigned accountants must be fully supported so that it can offer real, practical experience.”