Local accounting executives in the Scranton, Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania metro area said a slew of federal regulations is helping to spur job grow over the past decade. The Times Tribune reports that employment for workers with accounting, tax preparation, payroll processing or bookkeeping experience on their resume in the region outpaced the rest of the country by more than 60 percent in the past ten years, swelling from 1,594 in 2000 to 2,826 in 2009, according to the most recent U.S. Census Bureau. Larry Newman, vice president of the Greater Wilkes-Barre Chamber of Business and Industry, said that increased regulation following the corporate and accounting scandals of the early 2000s have create more opportunities for finance professionals. "We have an extremely large cluster of financial services and processing firms in the region," Newman told the news agency. "What you are seeing is a continued growth in a variety of different business sectors that require those skills." National companies with regional accounting capabilities in the Scranton area include Sallie Mae, Prudential, Bank of America and Kraft Foods. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, job opportunities for accountants and auditors should be favorable, and are expected to increase by 22% through the end of the decade. |