Orange County accounting offices continue to grow, expanding employment for a second year in a row after a three-year string of job cuts during the recession.
The 49 largest offices in OC have combined to increase local employment by 2.4% over the 12-month span through June, for a total of 4,294 employees here, according to this week’s Business Journal list.
The list includes firms with headquarters or significant operations in OC and ranks them by the number of local employees, including certified public accountants and other staff.
Home-grown firms make up more than two-thirds of this week’s list, about the same as last year, while a handful of the companies are based in New York. The rest are scattered through-out the U.S.
More than half of the firms on the list—26—made new hires in their OC offices, while 11 firms made cuts. The rest kept their employment numbers flat.
Hiring in OC appeared to lag the pace of the firms’ growth in other locations. They combined to grow their firmwide totals by more than 7%, to 605,806. About 90% of those employees are with the four largest firms, all headquartered in New York. The Big Four’s share in OC is smaller than that but substantial at 45%. They remained in their same respective ranks as a year earlier.
• The number of Orange County employees at No. 1 Deloitte LLP, for instance, makes up less than 1% of its firmwide total of 193,000. The firm added about 11,000 employees overall in the past year.
Deloitte made 27 new hires over the year, for a total of 757 employees in OC as of June. It has 98 partners here, up from a year-ago count of 95.
• KPMG LLP was No. 2, with 399 employees at its Irvine office after a 2% drop over the year. It has 34 partners here, an increase of four.
• Ernst & Young LLP closely trailed KPMG, with 398 employees in OC after adding seven over the past year. The company had a 10% gain in overall employee count, to 167,000. It saw a slight drop in the number of partners in OC, to 41.
• No. 4 PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP maintained its year-ago total of OC employees, at 386, while it made 1,900 hires across its other offices through the year. The firm had 32 partners in OC, down from 33 a year ago.
• Irvine-based White Nelson Diehl Evans LLP added five employees, for a total of 110, pushing the firm up one spot to No. 10. It has 18 partners here, up one from a year ago.
The firm is a result of a combination in late 2011 of White Nelson & Co. and Diehl Evans & Co., both of which had headquarters in Irvine.
The move combined focus areas of the two firms, including financial services, employee benefits, government and real estate, said Managing Partner David Doran.
“Our teams and firm cultures have blended very well,” he said in an email. “We are seeing many of the strategic advantages that we had envisioned for the new combined firm, for example, more consistent work levels throughout the calendar year due to our combination of commercial, government and nonprofit practices.”
The latest combination between OC accounting offices took place a couple of weeks ago when Irvine-based WilsonMorgan LLP joined Marcum LLP, which is based in Melville, N.Y., and has an office in Irvine.
WilsonMorgan’s five partners and 30 staff members joined Marcum, bringing the total employee count to 56 at the combined firm, which is expected to retain the Marcum name.
It’s ranked No. 19, up from No. 31 last year.
• Irvine-based Kushner, Smith, Joanou & Gregson LLP moved up two spots to No. 15 after growing its office by 14% to 65 employees. The firm has eight partners, unchanged from last year.
• No. 41 Almich & Associates was among the firms that saw employment cuts. The Lake Forest-based firm had the largest percentage decrease in the number of OC employees, down 16% to 21 as of June. Almich has seven partners, the same as last year.
• No. 19 SingerLewak LLP cut its OC workforce by 8% over the year, for a total of 56 employees. It also shrank its firmwide total by about 8%, to 220 employees. The firm has 10 partners in OC, down by one.
• Holthouse Carlin & Van Trigt LLP was among several newcomers. It came in at No. 12, with 87 employees at its Costa Mesa office. The Los Angeles-based firm has 321 employees overall, an increase of 10% over the past year. It has nine partners in OC, up by one.
• No. 32 Blythe Global Advisors also debuted on this week’s list. It increased its local office headcount by 50% to 30, including one partner. The firm also has offices in Los Angeles and San Diego.
• JLK Rosenberger LLP made the list at No. 42, with 20 employees here, up from 17 a year ago. The Irvine-based firm also has an office in Glendale that houses 21 employees. The firm has four partners in OC, down from five last year.
