I don't know which generation you are from or you are just a junior staff just blindly following what the partners preach, but if you have been there for the past at least 5 to 7 years, you would know that audit workload has increased due to ISA 315, new standards, digital initiatives and whatever new BS regulatory initiatives that are being thrown out which require more work.

Staffing can remain the same, but the work load has increased for each individual staff. Retention rate is low because only the useless clowns have remained and cant find job.

Want to talk about AQI, just 2 years ago the midtiers had attrition rate of 100+ % and Big4 was something like 40%, and thats just a reflection of how crap the industry is, because due to country wide manpower shortage eveyrone found a reason to pack bag and zhao (if we were so fking good why would anyone have left?? or in that sort of number), the aftermath of that is that everybody got a nice pay increment because we had to respond (note that usually responding to events already means you are a step too late). The replacements hired as a result of that exercise was not competent enough and led to a lack of knowledge retention. Those who stuck around for the increment and had the foresight to see what would come next also pack bag and zhao because why not, get another increment when you leave and you no longer have to deal with this swirling pit of ****. The only good people who remain from the lockdown exodus are those who have dreams of becoming a partner (respect and hats off to them), and those that still held onto hope that things would change (unfortunately it did not), and these people are desperately looking to leave.

A lot of good people have been preaching for pay increment for many years to attract talent, or even to change the way we work, but when you have 100 over partners with their own agenda with each having equal say, its a political nightmare to get anything done. Unfortunately there is not much incentive for the senior partners who are close to retirement to shake things up in any meaningful way, the options offered are to outsource more work to India / PH. So good luck to any of you still inside!

Before any of those who say good luck to my pay progression in commercial and whatever not, thanks for your concern, but i think there is a lot more to life than just the dollar signs and i earn enough to lead what i consider a comfortable life. I am already out so what i offer is just my unbiased opinion.

But of course i still like to stalk these forums to know that i made the right choice
My measure of metric is that when i started reading this while still in the B4 was that in 2000 there was only 90 odd pages and those were mainly to compare salary and offer opinion, but in those 4 years this forum has now over 1k pages and has become just a ground to complain and flame JHK, i also dont know why, for those that feel superior doing so, you are another reason why audit is just spiralling downwards.

GL all

s://.acra.gov.sg/docs/default-source/default-document-library/public-accountants/audit-quality-indicators-disclosure-framework/aqi---industry-information-(sep-2022)dda1c2a065644cc7b488bbd615652584.pdf