After a difficult couple of years for accountants in Ireland, 2011 is already shaping up to be stronger. More firms are recruiting, but – perhaps more significantly – employers are much more willing to put their hands in their pocket to keep hold of good people.

Our research shows that currently 22% of accountants securing a new job are being counter-offered, up from 12% last year, and this proportion is rising. We estimate that this trend will cost Irish companies €20m in 2011.

Even more encouraging for Irish accountants is that the size of these counter offers has risen significantly too. The average counter offer is now 13% of base salary, up from 4% this time last year, indicating that employers are realising that there is now sufficient demand for accountancy and finance professionals to force them to pay to keep hold of the best talent.

Average wages in the sector have been pushed up to €110k, according to the Leinster Society of Chartered Accountants.

The phenomenon is being experienced in both practice and industry. The insurance and reinsurance industries are currently leading the way in counter-offer wage inflation, but accountants working in tax, risk and compliance are also the subject of bidding.

The trend of freezing wages in the sector over the last three years, has led many accountants to look to pastures new, and the result is rapidly spiralling costs that could have been better kept in check had salaries risen gradually.

It may be that the rise of the counter-offer will fundamentally change the way finance functions negotiate wages. Now the power rests firmly with employees who have had to tolerate static salaries during the recession – although this may prove very unpopular with the 13.4% of the Irish population who are currently unemployed.

Counter-offers are most frequent in Dublin and involve sums that are twice as large as elsewhere in Ireland. Indeed, one out of every three candidates are now being offered more money to stay in their roles, and counter-offers of 15% of base salary are common. At managerial and directorial level, the pace is even quicker as two thirds of resigning employees are currently being counter-offered.

The reason for this regional disparity appears to be that firms in Dublin are prepared to spend significantly more money retaining their workforce than those in other parts of the country – and this may be an indicator of a two-tier recovery in the economy.

While the public sector and construction sectors are temporarily dead, international companies have opened substantial regional headquarters here, following in the footsteps of the likes of Pfizer, Google, and Cadbury’s. This is troubling news for regional companies trying to prevent an exodus of talent to the capital.

So, while the current level of counter-offers demonstrates that there has been some recovery in the demand for accountancy and finance professionals, there remains concern for regional employment. Employers outside Dublin appear to be struggling to keep up with increasing wage demands and this could act to draw more skilled employees away from the regions. Nevertheless a bumpy recovery is far better than no recovery at all.

Dan McKeown is associate director of Marks Sattin Ireland