A private practice accountant is more likely to see greater variety in terms of the businesses they audit and assist. In most large private practice accountancy firms, specialisation within a certain industry or sector is common. However, the accountant will still be dealing with different businesses and rising to the challenge of helping them increase productivity and reducing their tax burden. It is this variety which appeals to some people.

The in-house accountancy specialist, on the other hand, will immerse themself in the books of their employer and will be part of a team dedicated to working towards a common aim. The dedicated concentration and depth of work in the affairs of a single company is what appeals to many that follow in-house accountancy as a career.  Many also enjoy working as part of a long-term team, rather than visiting many different companies in the course of their work.

Whether an accountant chooses to work in private practice or in-house, both options can lead to a rich and rewarding career.

It can be notoriously difficult for companies to find and retain good junior accounts staff, which can cause problems because often, employees who fulfil this role are like duck’s feet; paddling away furiously below the surface so the corporate body can move serenely along.

The difficulty for many companies with high volume trade is that the role requires a certain type of person – someone who is capable of organising incoming and outgoing transactions in an orderly and structured way without getting flustered, but also understands the urgency of processing quickly. Failure to fulfil these requirements can either create a hideous mess that is difficult to sort out, or lead to the department falling hopelessly behind as ongoing transactions start to back up. A quick and organised mind is the key for a member of staff in this kind of role. The ability to focus on details to ensure accuracy is particularly important.

Obviously companies are looking for reliability in all of their employees, but it is particularly important with junior accounts staff. While accountants are universally the butt of jokes around boring and unconventional personalities, the stereotype is not something that stands up to examination in the real world. Nevertheless, during work hours, accountancy staff who are dependable and consistent are highly prized, and this is something that candidates for junior accountancy jobs should always bear in mind when preparing their CVs.

Lloyds TSB will shed over 1,600 staff within its operations, insurance and wholesale divisions as part of the restructuring of the banking group announced last year. RBS is due to cut up to 500 positions nationwide, including the closure of its operations in Bristol and Farnborough.

The unions have described the staff cuts as ‘brutal’ and called it a ‘black day’ for the financial services industry. There is particular anger as both institutions were recipients of government bailout money in the banking crisis of 2008. Anger was intensified by the fact that 300 of the Lloyds TSB jobs were being transferred to India to take advantage of lower labour costs.

Jointly, the organisations have been forced to reduce their workforce by over 50,000 since the financial crisis and both banks acknowledged the impact that the announcement would have on their staff. However, they claim the cuts are required by tough trading conditions and overall market uncertainty in the wake of the European financial crisis and the global economic slowdown. Management at both banks emphasised that compulsory redundancies would be kept to a minimum and strenuous efforts would be made to find new roles for those affected. Lloyds TSB claimed that of the total job cuts, fewer than 50% have resulted in compulsory redundancies.

With a good supply of immediately available candidates at the moment, there is an appetite from employers for temp-to-perm roles at the transactional and part qualified level. Employers experiencing sign off delays for permanent vacancies are increasingly turning to temporary workers to clear backlogs.

Whilst retailers remain cautious in the current market, a few employers are hiring financial and commercial analyst roles in order to gain a better understanding of where their businesses’ financial pressure points lie, and in order to plan for the future.

The weakness of the GBP continues to make British exports more competitive in overseas markets. As a result we are seeing an increase in demand for financial controllers and commercial finance roles in export manufacturing companies, particularly in the Midlands.

The market is still seeing a significant amount of consolidation activity within the SME market. This is driving demand for finance managers to allow finance directors to focus on restructuring and upskilling their organisations.

Back in 2008 companies cut their intake of graduates into ACA training as the recession started to bite. We are now seeing a supply issue with companies unable to fill vacancies for newly qualified accountants.

Highlights for 2011 included:

•    In 2011 we saw an increase in market confidence. The number of fixed term and temp roles increased as companies looked for innovative ways to deliver growth.

•    Towards the back end of 2011 many organisations sought forecast and budget experts for restructuring projects as economic volatility took hold.

•    Process control and compliance remained top of the corporate agenda and employers shifted their focus from temporary to permanent roles as the year progressed.

We expect a degree of uncertainty to remain throughout 2012 driven by lower confidence in certain markets that will ultimately affect the UK and continued focus on regulation. Key predictions include:

•    For 2012 we predict a shortage of qualifying ACAs as a direct result of the reduction of intakes in the recession of 2008. This will lead to continuing pressure in the market for newly qualified accountants. We are already seeing this lead to posts in certain key fields including financial control, financial analysis and internal audit remaining unfilled for extended periods of time, increasing salary inflation in those areas as a result.

•    A level of uncertainty around the Agency Worker Regulations combined with companies demanding flexibility in their workforce due to the ongoing economic concern in the Eurozone is starting to cause a shift in the market for temporary workers away from hourly paid towards fixed term contracts.  Whilst these types of contracts carry greater risk for companies, they do address their desire not to commit to permanent hires in the current climate.

•    With employers looking to manage or mitigate commercial risk or liability, which we expect to continue throughout 2012 we expect demand for specialist disciplines such as tax planning, risk management and internal audit to remain high.

•    We expect a shift towards online from some traditional retailers in response to the slowdown on the high street, and for the big supermarkets in reaction to the ever heightening levels of competition. We expect this to drive a demand for financial and commercial analysts as a result.

How do our predictions stack up against yours?

Tell us what you expect to see from an attraction, retention or talent management point of view in the accounting and finance function during 2012 in the comment box below:

More women could be attracted to accountancy jobs in the future after PwC launched an opportunity for ladies to apply for its female partner shadowing scheme.

The organisation revealed that around 400 applications have been made for the position, which will see students gain an insight into the firm.

This will include attending meetings, working with clients and other PwC teams, while also gaining exposure to what it is like to work within a leadership role.

Gaenor Bagley, PwC head of people, said that PwC is "really proud" to have a high number of women in leadership positions, something she believes should be encouraged elsewhere as well.

"We're keen to show the variety of opportunities available to everyone at PwC and give a true insight into what it takes to make it to the very top in a firm like ours," she explained.

Meanwhile, accountancy jobs could also follow as auto-enrolment for pensions moved a step closer earlier this week following the publishing of regulations by the government.

Counselling is becoming a regular aid for people in finance jobs and other workplace roles because of difficulties caused in and out of employment.

That is according to new research published by Right Management, which found 30,000 employees accessed its Employee Assistance Programmes (EAP) in 2011 – an increase from 4.36 per cent of staff in 2007 to 5.37 per cent last year.

Kevin Friery, clinical director of Right Management, said that these difficulties are not helped by the tough economic changes that have taken place in the last two to three years, creating "instability, uncertainty and insecurity".

He added that around 85 per cent of callers' difficulties are from outside the workplace, while 15 per cent were caused by work itself.

Furthermore, he believes that more help from within the workplace could help people who are otherwise facing difficult stress problems and other issues.

"Gone are the days that work-life balance is talked about as two competing forces at opposite ends of the spectrum," he explained.

"Given that the average duration of sickness absence for stress-related problems currently stands at 30.6 days, workplace counselling that prevents longer employee absence, or even better provides an intervention before absence, will make a material difference that benefits the employer."

Many others believe that the onus is on employers to take a step forward and help some of their workers. However, Ann McCracken, chair of the International Stress Management Association (ISMA), believes there are some changes workers themselves can make to improve the situation.

She says that people can regain control of what they are doing if they believe that they can influence most situations with their own personal approach.

"Learning how to develop a problem solving approach to life, seeing situations as an opportunity to do things differently, and taking a metaphoric step back to take some time to assess options can be a route to reducing the pressure the individual is experiencing," she explained.

"If pressure continues to be allowed to develop over a period of time, the result is stress which shows itself as ill health – some of which can be extremely serious (migraine, high blood pressure, heart attack, stroke, cancer, asthma, exzema/psoriasis et cetera)."

She also advises people to eat comfort foods to increase the presence of serotonin, a chemical that gives a sense of calm, comfort and mood enhancement.

Additionally, she said that there are several alternative health methods that can be introduced, but must be introduced as part of a healthy life plan "as they are usually holistic in approach, working with the health and wellbeing of the whole body".

The biggest cause of stress growth, it would appear, has been the worsening economy. A poll commissioned by GP-authored health website Patient.co.uk – published this week – revealed that 36 per cent of people surveyed said that they were feeling stressed because of the economic crisis.

Alarmingly, this rose for people in the 18 to 24-year-old age group to 43 per cent, showing that this anxiety does not thrive in any particular age limit.

Companies could require the help of people in accountancy jobs after the government announced the publishing of auto-enrolment regulations today (February 2nd).

Ministers hope that the package will help businesses put auto-enrolment into their pension scheme after clarification was sought in last summer's consultation.

Companies that are still struggling to grasp what they need to do could turn to the services of people in accountancy jobs to make sure they are set up correctly.

Minister for pensions Steve Webb said he welcomes the positive response to the consultation ahead of a big change in the pensions system.

"These regulations provide key legal requirements and guidance to help employers start enrolling their staff later this year," he said.

"Automatic enrolment can now begin and start a much-needed seismic shift in pension saving in this country."

It comes after the Financial Reporting Council said last month that new rules on economic reporting could create new roles in businesses.

Finance jobs may still be needed in the coming months despite new research showing small improvements in the money situations of households.

Alliance Trust's UK Financial Reality Index rose from 56.7 to 62.1 in the final quarter of last year, but it is still short of the critical level of 100.

This suggests that weak GDP growth, labour market deterioration and high levels of consumer debt are continuing to be a problem for people.

Linsey Thomson, senior economic analyst at the Alliance Trust Economic Research Centre, said that an improvement is welcome after a difficult third quarter of last year.

She added: "The net wealth index received a boost from a small increase in both house prices and equity markets, but this is still the weakest component, due to highs level of consumer debt.

"Meanwhile, household budgets continue to come under pressure from high inflation and muted wage growth, despite a rise in the index in Q4."

It comes after research by Credit Action, published last week, revealed that one in three prospective university students is not worried by debt.

Finance jobs could be required after new research showed that one in three prospective students is not worried by possible debt.

Credit Action found that one in four prospective university-goers it questioned have never received any form of financial education, such as informal teaching or leaflets.

Furthermore, only 27 per cent cited financial issues as a fear of university, suggesting more help could be required in the coming months.

Michelle Highman, the chief executive officer of Credit Action, said that he is concerned that many prospective students are "sleep-walking into significant debt".

"Whilst it is comforting that -on this basic level – students will have access to financial information and advice through the manual, it is vital that more is done to help young people manage money and avoid unnecessary debt," she said.

At the other end of the age scale, research by Prudential found earlier this week that one in five people will retire in debt this year.