Within financial services, jobs for accountants also had a notable upturn in performance throughout 2022, with over 6,500 vacancies and a 20.4% year-on-year increase as a result, shows data from the latest UK Finance Labour Market Trends report by Morgan McKinley and Vacancysoft.

A quarterly analysis of data confirmed that during Q1, commerce and industry vacancies reached their 2022 peak, exceeding 3,800 postings. Meanwhile, for financial services, there were over 1,800 new accountant jobs in Q3.

Barclays, JPMorgan Chase and Amazon were the busiest recruiters in 2022 with nearly 300 vacancies for accountancy jobs over the 12-month period.

Bex Pearce, commercial director, Morgan McKinley, said: ‘Quality and committed candidates still remain the biggest challenge when recruiting for clients, and this was represented in Morgan McKinley’s recent salary survey for 2023 – 56% of candidates surveyed would consider looking for a new role within the first six months of 2023, compared to 84% in 2022.

‘The return to companies looking for the ‘perfect’ candidate has been a key focus this year so far.

‘Businesses are not prepared to compromise as much as last year, which in turn is elongating the recruitment process and organisations are, at times, losing quality talent to competitors who have the ability to move at pace.

‘Thoughtful and structured recruitment processes are a huge contributor to successful hiring at all levels and to ensure the bring in the right talent.’

At over 4,400 accountant vacancies, retail made up the bulk of the new jobs within financial services and commerce and industry, experiencing a surge of 18% compared to 2021.

However, the fastest growth across sectors was experienced by industrials/engineering, with hiring volumes up 45.5% year-on-year. This surpassed 1,000 vacancies published for the first time since 2020, when overall vacancies suffered a slowdown due to the pandemic.

Greater London accountedfor 47.2% of UK hiring as job volumes grew fastest in Yorkshire and the Humber.

Regionally, London was once again top of the charts as the largest hub for accountant vacancies in 2022, publishing almost 10,000 vacancies and registering a yearly growth of 20.2% compared to 2021. The capital accounted for nearly 47.2% of all hiring activity.

The southeast took the runner-up spot with almost 2,800 new jobs, up 20.8% year-on-year.

A deeper dive across the top firms within financial services and commerce and industry hiring accountant professionals shows that Barclays was the leading firm in 2022, registering a year-on-year increase of 85.7% from 2021 with almost 300 new jobs.

JPMorgan Chase came second, almost equalling Barclays in terms of volumes, although its year-on-year rise compared to 2021 was somewhat lower (up 22.5%). The technology sector ranked third with Amazon, experiencing a year-on-year growth of 27.3% compared to 2021.

Kier Group, the only real estate and construction firm featured in the list, posted the highest growth across all businesses with a 318.6% increase from 2021.