Business and Financial Operations · Holland code CEI

Accountants and Auditors

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.

Also called: Accountant, Auditor, CPA (Certified Public Accountant), Internal Auditor, Accounting Officer, Audit Partner, Cost Accountant, Financial Auditor.

O*NET 13-2011.00

At a glance

US median annual pay: $83,680; Middle half earn $67,020 to $109,810. BLS OEWS, May 2025.
Preparation needed: Job Zone 4 of 5; Considerable preparation. Zone 1 is little or none; zone 5 is graduate-level.
US employment outlook, 2024 to 2034: +5% · Faster than average; 1,579,800 jobs in 2024, projected 1,652,600. BLS Occupational Outlook Handbook, which groups this with similar roles as "Accountants and auditors".

What the work involves

The tasks workers in this occupation rate as most important, from the O*NET survey.

Prepare, examine, or analyze accounting records, financial statements, or other financial reports to assess accuracy, completeness, and conformance to reporting and procedural standards.
Process invoices for payment.
Review accounts for discrepancies and reconcile differences.
Compute taxes owed and prepare tax returns, ensuring compliance with payment, reporting, or other tax requirements.
Prepare adjusting journal entries.
Inspect account books and accounting systems for efficiency, effectiveness, and use of accepted accounting procedures to record transactions.
Prepare detailed reports on audit findings.
Prepare, analyze, or verify annual reports, financial statements, and other records, using accepted accounting and statistical procedures to assess financial condition and facilitate financial planning.

Skills and knowledge it leans on

Skills

Reading Comprehension3.9 / 5
Active Listening3.5 / 5
Writing3.5 / 5
Critical Thinking3.5 / 5
Speaking3.4 / 5
Mathematics3.4 / 5

Knowledge areas

Economics and Accounting4.4 / 5
English Language3.6 / 5
Mathematics3.5 / 5
Law and Government3.3 / 5
Administration and Management3.3 / 5
Customer and Personal Service3.3 / 5

Importance ratings on O*NET’s 1 to 5 scale. Higher means the occupation depends on it more.

Who tends to enjoy it

How strongly this occupation draws on each of the six Holland interest types, which is the same profile the career interests test compares you against.

Realistic2
Investigative43
Artistic1
Social19
Enterprising48
Conventional100

The same work abroad

Other countries classify jobs differently, so these are the closest matches through the international ISCO-08 standard, not exact equivalents.

European occupation titles (ESCO)

accountant · DE Controller/Controllerin · FR comptable
accounting analyst · DE Buchhaltungsanalyst/Buchhaltungsanalystin · FR expert-comptable/experte-comptable
public finance accountant · DE Finanzreferent in der öffentlichen Verwaltung/Finanzreferentin in der öffentlichen Verwaltung · FR agent comptable/agente comptable
audit supervisor · DE Auditleiter/Auditleiterin · FR directeur de l'audit interne/directrice de l'audit interne
financial auditor · DE Finanzauditor/Finanzauditorin · FR auditeur comptable et financier/auditrice comptable et financière
IT auditor · DE IT-Prüfer/IT-Prüferin · FR auditeur des systèmes d’information/auditrice des systèmes d’information

Closest UK occupation groups (SOC 2020)

Chartered and certified accountants (2421)233,600 employed
Financial and accounting technicians (3533)37,700 employed
Pensions and insurance clerks and assistants (4132)65,200 employed

Employment is the UK Annual Population Survey for April 2025 to March 2026, all workers in the group, which can be broader than this one occupation.

Japan

Japan classifies jobs in its own way. The closest category that names the same work is “公認会計士，税理士”, which may be narrower or broader than this occupation.

Median monthly pay: ¥434,100; Middle half earn ¥344,300 to ¥593,300 a month.
Workers in the category: 26,640; Regular employees in firms of ten or more.

Scheduled monthly pay before tax, excluding overtime and bonuses, so it is not comparable to the annual figures above. Source: Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare, Basic Survey on Wage Structure 2025, via e-Stat, under the Japanese Government Standard Terms of Use. The category match was made by hand.

Pay across Europe, for the whole group

Median annual earnings of all employees in “Professionals”. This is the broad ISCO group this occupation falls in, not the occupation itself, so treat it as context for the wage level, not as a salary for this job.

Median annual earnings, Professionals, by country
Country	Median pay
Belgium	€61,714
Germany	€59,529
Ireland	€56,877
Austria	€55,374
Netherlands	€53,595
Sweden	€43,567
France	€41,515
Spain	€35,735
Italy	€33,649
Portugal	€26,072
Poland	€14,380

Eurostat Structure of Earnings Survey, businesses with ten or more employees outside public administration, in euro and not adjusted for the cost of living. Reference years differ between sources: the US, Japan and Europe figures on this page come from different survey years, so compare them as rough levels, not to the euro or yen.

Exposure to AI

This occupation sits in the higher third of the 774 occupations scored, with an exposure score of +1.48. The scores are standardized across those occupations, so 0 is the average and a score of 1 is about one standard deviation above it.

Our note on reading it: the dataset links AI applications to the abilities that occupations require, so the score reflects overlap between the two. It is a comparison between occupations, not a forecast about jobs. It does not say whether exposure means tasks are replaced or workers get more done with the tools, and it says little about one employer or one role.

Source: Felten, E., Raj, M., & Seamans, R. (2021). Occupational, industry, and geographic exposure to artificial intelligence: A novel dataset and its potential uses. Strategic Management Journal, 42(12), 2195-2217. Matched to this page by 6-digit SOC code (13-2011).

Is it a fit for you?

Interest is one input, alongside ability, pay and what is hiring near you. The career interests test takes about thirteen minutes and ranks occupations by how closely their profile matches yours.

Take the career interests test