Across the Gulf, accountancy firms and corporate finance teams alike are struggling to fill the roles they most need: experienced, well-trained accountants and auditors.
The shortage is not restricted to the Middle East. Worldwide, the effects are being felt of an ageing workforce, fewer young people entering the profession, and a generation drawn to careers in technology and finance over the audit room.
‘This challenge is not region-specific – it reflects a broader shift in the profession, where evolving industry demands are reshaping the skills required in audit,’ says Dr Osama El-Bakry, partner and head of assurance at Grant Thornton UAE. What sets the region apart is an added pressure. On top of the global squeeze, the Gulf is absorbing a surge in demand driven by rapid economic expansion and the spread of new tax and reporting rules.
‘The demand for qualified professionals across the Gulf is set to grow exponentially’
New regulation is creating accounting roles faster than firms can hire for them; the supply of experienced staff that the region long imported is thinning; and automation is changing the profession – part of the problem, but increasingly part of the answer.
Transformation and evolution
‘The demand for qualified finance and accounting professionals across the Gulf is set to grow exponentially, driven by national transformation plans and evolving regulations,’ says Sagun Vaidya, director, external audit at Deloitte Middle East.
Beneath these plans sits the regulation that generates the work. The UAE’s corporate tax regime now requires many companies to file IFRS-compliant financial statements; its Securities and Commodities Authority has tightened internal-control and risk-management rules for listed companies; and Oman is introducing a personal income tax from 2028. Each measure adds work and calls for people who know the standards – both within companies and the firms that audit them.
‘The sharpest competition is for accountants with four to six years of experience’
That is where the opportunity for accountants becomes clear. The new rules do not just need more hands, they need particular skills: IFRS reporting, tax compliance, assurance, internal controls and governance. As Vaidya puts it, accountants are increasingly expected to act as strategic partners rather than processors of transactions. The work is moving up the value chain, and the people who can do it are more valuable than ever.
Workers’ market
Experienced professionals are far more deliberate in where they choose to build their career. Firms must clearly demonstrate real growth, purpose, and long-term opportunity, says El-Bakry. ‘The sharpest competition is for accountants with four to six years of experience – the people who do the groundwork on an audit and can run an engagement with little supervision.’
Finding them, El-Bakry adds, is now the single biggest constraint on the business; a vacancy can stay open for months. Nor is the competition confined to audit firms; companies are hiring experienced auditors into their own finance teams, often at higher pay, draining practices of the very people they have trained.
‘The UAE does not have accountants to spare’
For decades, the Gulf met this need by recruiting experienced staff from emerging economies with deeper training pipelines. That route is narrowing as those markets keep more of their own people and demand rises everywhere. ‘The UAE does not have accountants to spare,’ El-Bakry says.
Saudi Arabia adds a further dimension; since October 2025, firms employing five or more accountants must fill 40% of those roles with Saudi nationals, a quota set to rise to 70% over five years.
Limited AI support
Some of the strain can be designed out. At Grant Thornton UAE, El-Bakry says ‘AI is increasingly tackling routine aspects of audit, enabling teams to dedicate more time to complex, judgment-driven work and delivering sharper insights.’
What AI cannot replace is judgment. ‘Advisory, strategy and compliance interpretation still require human expertise,’ says Vaidya. ‘Cultural intelligence cannot yet be coded into a model.’ El-Bakry makes the same point from the audit floor: deciding what to question and how far to trust the evidence, he says, ‘is like an investigation’.
The danger is that genuine efficiency gains become an excuse. They are ‘being used in some quarters to justify under-investment in human talent pipelines,’ Vaidya warns. ‘That is a dangerous trade-off.’ Technology, as he puts it, narrows the gap; it does not close it.
A symptom of success
Governments and the private sector are both working to improve the pipeline. Deloitte’s Kiyadat initiatives, for example, which include an internship programme and closer ties with universities, offer GCC nationals a route from education into the profession.
For accountants in the Gulf, the shortage is partly a symptom of success: the work is growing because economies are. It will not be solved by higher pay alone. The firms that thrive will be those that rebuild the experience they once imported, training juniors despite the cost and investing in the judgment that no model can replace.
