U.S. Adds 151,000 Jobs in January, Including 5,800 in Accounting [AT]
Are you an accountant that spent the weekend worrying about coming to work on Monday? If so, we have good news! You can get another job today. No, really. You can probably get a different job and get a raise:
"Overall the unemployment rate has fallen to less than 5 percent and for accountants in the skilled accountant labor market, it's much lower than that," said Kim Gottschalk, senior regional vice president for the staffing company Accounting Principals. "For the skilled accountant workforce, those people can find jobs immediately if they're looking, or they can switch jobs for a bump in salary right now. Wages are very strong in accounting and finance. People are taking multiple offers and they are getting significant bumps up in pay in many cases. This is for both the temporary labor market, which continues to be very strong, and the direct hire force. They are expected to be very strong throughout all of 2016 and into 2017 and perhaps beyond. That's what's projected. There is no shortage of jobs for accounting and finance professionals."
In other words, there's no excuse for accountants who are unhappy with their current job or settling for a job that they're unsure about. Sure, maybe you can't be Facebook's controller right now but it seems likely that you'll be able to find something decent.
Brixmor
This is one way to start a Monday:
Brixmor Property said that CEO Michael Carroll, President and Chief Financial Officer Michael Pappagallo, and Chief Accounting Officer Steven Splain, along with an accounting employee, have resigned, effective immediately. Carroll has also stepped down from board of directors.
The company noted that the management changes follow the completion of an Audit Committee review that began after it received information in late December 2015 through its established compliance processes.
Sounds interesting, doesn't it? Here's the 8-K filing with a little more detail:
In response to this information, the Audit Committee engaged outside legal counsel and an independent forensic accounting firm to assist with the review. The review led the Company’s board of directors to conclude that specific Company personnel, in certain instances, were directly involved and/or supervised persons directly involved in smoothing income items between reporting periods in a manner contrary to GAAP in an effort to achieve consistent quarterly same property net operating income growth, an industry non-GAAP financial measure. The Company’s board of directors and its outside advisors are continuing to assess whether any further remediation is appropriate with respect to the Company’s internal reporting controls and procedures.
Earnings smoothing for non-GAAP reporting! I'll bet there's a cookie jar involved. Chairman John Schreiber said, "The board is disappointed to have learned of the conduct and lack of appropriate management supervision uncovered as a result of the Audit Committee review," but the company doesn't expect to restate its results. Silver lining!
EY announces its EY Synapse Analytics-as-a-Service platform to accelerate delivery of analytics-driven insights to businesses globally [EY]
Analytics-as-a-Service? How would you pronounce that acronym?
EY has announced its global Analytics-as-a-Service (AaaS) platform, EY Synapse, to accelerate the delivery of analytics-driven insights that businesses can use to compete and operate more effectively.
Okay, so if "SaaS" sounds like "sass," then "AaaS" sounds like "ass," right? RIGHT? Was this the same team that didn't Google "EY" images?
In other global firm news, BDO Italy poached 50 professionals, including 7 partners, from Grant Thornton.
Previously, on Going Concern…
On Open Items, someone is deciding between a master's or an IT/accounting double major to get their 150 hours.
In other news:
- Why a Business-Tax Overhaul Is So Tricky
- Vanguard, a Champion of Low Fees, Faces a Peculiar Tax Challenge
- Why Is the U.S. Still Sitting on $4 Billion in Madoff Money?
- Bad White House WiFi.
- New York talks a lot.
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