The profession is set to weather the storm of the credit crunch, with firms well-placed to avoid the culls and cutbacks elsewhere in the City.

‘The outlook is healthy. We are not planning any job losses and are continuing to recruit. We are hungry for people,’ a KPMG spokeswoman said. Firms are especially looking for people in tax, they indicated.

A survey of 2,000 employers conducted by recruitment consultants Manpower showed that the number of companies expecting to hire staff in the first quarter of 2008 was still greater than companies expecting to cut jobs, but that the margin between the two was the narrowest it had been for six years.

The Big Four are planning to match the graduate recruitment levels of previous years, taking in approximately 1,000 students each.

Other businesses in the Square Mile are expected to slash headcounts for the first time since 2001, with investment banks set to suffer the heaviest losses. UBS cut 1,500 jobs in October and Dresdner Kleinwort is planning to reduce headcount by 200 before 2008.

So far accountants have managed to avoid the credit-crunch fallout by focusing on emerging markets.

The firms also said this week they were expecting a growth in insolvency work as the credit crunch hit and businesses suffered. ‘We’re expecting a material increase in business,’ said Mike Jervis, an insolvency partner at PricewaterhouseCoopers.