EA Licence 23S1672+65 8043 4906

Practice

Audit & Assurance

We place the signing partners, technical directors and engagement leaders who carry an accounting firm's audit and assurance practice — the scarcest, most heavily regulated talent in the profession.

~USD 234B
Global auditing services market size, 2025
Fortune Business Insights
78%
Of audit partners say the talent shortage has increased workload and hindered hiring
Center for Audit Quality / CFO Dive
73%
Of companies now obtain assurance on at least some sustainability disclosures (up from 58% in 2020)
IFAC / AICPA & CIMA
~4.2% CAGR
Forecast growth of the auditing services market to 2034
Fortune Business Insights

The talent market

Audit and assurance is the regulated backbone of every accounting firm, and the talent that signs and leads engagements is the hardest in the profession to recruit and retain. The global auditing services market is estimated at roughly USD 234 billion in 2025 and is forecast to grow at about a 4.2% CAGR through 2034 [1], but headcount growth has not kept pace with demand: the US Bureau of Labor Statistics projects well over 100,000 accounting and auditing openings each year against a shrinking qualification pipeline, and 78% of audit partners surveyed by the Center for Audit Quality say the accountant shortage has intensified workloads and hindered hiring [2].

That scarcity is most acute at the top of the pyramid. Mandatory engagement-partner rotation on listed audits, tightening independence rules and a wave of Baby Boomer partner retirements mean firms are perpetually short of people qualified to sign opinions on public-interest entities. The result is a sustained premium on credentialled, rotation-eligible partners and senior managers — precisely the cohort that rarely responds to job adverts and must be approached through retained, discreet search.

Demand is also broadening beyond the statutory audit. Sustainability and ESG assurance has moved from voluntary to mandated across APAC, Europe and beyond — 73% of companies now obtain assurance on at least some of their sustainability disclosures, up from 58% in 2020 [3] — while IPO windows in Hong Kong and Singapore, SOX/ICFR remediation and complex technical-accounting transactions are all competing for the same finite pool of assurance specialists. CharteredPartners is retained by Big Four, mid-tier network and independent firms to secure this talent across Singapore, Hong Kong, Sydney, Dubai and London.

Hiring in audit & assurance? Let's talk.

Request a Search