For the year in prospect, projected recruitment is put at 1,878, down from 1082 in 2007/2008, a fall of 18.8 p.c.. The brunt of the decline will be in professional recruitment, down from 527 last year to to 317 this year and non professional graduate recruitment, down from 226 last year to 127 this year. At the trainee level recruitment will be broadly maintained, with PWC holding its quota at 280 for the coming year, compared with a slight decline for KPMG, from 357 in 2007/2008 to 326 in 2008/2009. Productivity, as measured by fee income levels per staff member in Ireland's top twenty accountancy firms has slowed considerably, in line with the slow down in fee income, with fee income per chargeable staff member rising in low single digit figures on average last year. Productivity lagged nominal fee growth in most cases, indicating that recruitment continued at a faster pace than income.

The golden era of uninterrupted double digit fee income growth by Ireland's largest accountancy firms is showing signs of flagging, according to the results of the FINANCE Accountancy Survey 2008, which shows fee income of the twenty largest practices up by 11.0 per cent in the past year, a reduced rate of increase compared with the 19.6 per cent recorded in 2006/7.

The ability to adapt to the changed economic climate by offering clients new or revised services will be key for accountants going forward, say managing partners in Ireland's top 20 accountancy firms, and the 2008 Accountancy Survey results indicating a decrease in corporate finance, tax and consulting and increase in audit/accounting and corporate recovery comes as no surprise to them.