As tax season roars into life, some accounting firms are experiencing an unusual phenomenon at their busiest time of the year: unfilled jobs.

At McGladrey & Pullen, which typically staffs its downtown Des Moines office with about 180 people at this time of year, 12 cubicles that should be occupied by busy certified public accountants remain empty.

As the economy continues to improve, the demands of Sarbanes-Oxley regulations on larger firms, coupled with requirements that have essentially added a fifth year that students must complete before sitting for the CPA exam, have kept accounting majors in demand — and firms scrambling to attract talent.

“With the economy growing, accountants are the first ones in demand,” said Kevin Prust, managing partner at McGladrey. “We’ve seen a shortage of experienced hires, not only in Iowa, but across the country.” In Iowa, the regional firm employs about 600 CPAs in eight offices.

Industry observers say the corporate accounting scandals have heightened interest in the profession, just as the Washington Post’s uncovering of the Watergate scandal made journalism sexy in the 1970s. According to a survey conducted by the National Association of Colleges and Employers, accounting has become the most in-demand major on college campuses.

In Iowa, the flow of accounting graduates was slowed in 2001, when a 150-hour requirement was adopted for taking the CPA exam.

On the corporate level, a quarterly survey conducted by Robert Half & Associates indicates that chief financial officers expect their net hiring to increase by 5 percent in the first quarter, up 3 points from the level predicted a year ago.

The demand among both public accounting firms and corporations, particularly for experienced CPAs with between three and seven years of experience, is bidding up salary and benefits packages as firms compete to attract the best talent.

“I truly believe it is now a search for talent, in that people are looking for better organizations,” Prust said. “So that search for talent becomes key down the road. Our firm has specifically looked at this, and we think there’s going to be even more tightening, a shortage of people, down the road. Part of it is the amount of work that needs to be done, and the growth. You’ve got a greater amount of work required by the public companies with Sarbanes-Oxley, so there’s just less of an accounting supply out there.”

The accountants who work for the Big Four firms are also doing fine, according to John Blanchard, co-owner of Midwest Search Group, a Clive-based headhunting firm that works primarily with Central Iowa accounting firms. The larger firms have bumped up their base salaries by a minimum of 10 percent within the past year, and bonuses for a committment to stay on through the completion of the busy season or Sarbanes-Oxley projects are becoming more common, he said.

“I’ve been recruiting for 11 years, and this is the first time that there’s been a significant inequity in pay among the large public firms, which is a direct result of who’s doing more Sarbanes-Oxley work than others,” Blanchard said.

“Usually, when salaries increase with the larger firms, it filters down to the private industry (accountants),” he said. “We haven’t seen that happening yet. It’s primarily because of the money that’s being paid to the public accountants. They can’t afford to lose them, so they’re throwing money at them, which makes it difficult to leave public accounting without taking a pay cut.”

McGladrey, which in Iowa starts recent accounting graduates in the $40,000 to $44,000 salary range, is hiring more interns to catch students before they enter their fifth year. Additionally, the firm is trying to tap its vast alumni pool of accountants who have left the state, and also paying their accountants a finder’s fee for referring a candidate who gets hired.

One of the biggest changes among firms, say partners, has been the flexibility extended to accountants to entice them to stay.

Flexible working arrangements, such as flex time and the ability to work from home, are becoming increasingly common. And rather than retiring, older accountants will likely be able to arrange part-time positions, he said.

“These types of flexibility are becoming increasingly important,” Prust said. “I think that’s going to be the biggest change within the next five years.”