“I have seen things change dramatically over the past few months. Job flow is significantly up. In the main it has increased by 16-17%,” says Gareth Davage, managing director at Michael Page Finance (London and North).

And as the economy returns to growth and markets change, adaptable accountants are in demand, says Sara Reading, head of graduate recruitment at KPMG.

“Demand is primarily within our advisory function - areas such as performance, technology, restructuring. Along with technical ability and experience, we require the ability to adapt to the changing market, to be innovative and put the client first.”

But finding the right candidate is easier said than done, Reading adds. “There is less of a churn of the right type of candidate as organisations try harder to retain them in their current roles.”

And the intensification of the war for talent for specialists in corporate recovery has caused Samantha Weston, head of resourcing at Grant Thornton, to look inward.

“Getting high quality candidates with the right skill set, and fluctuations in demand for specialist areas, can be a challenge to our resourcing plans. These skills tend to be more in demand so fewer people are available in the market, which requires us to be agile in our approach to the problem. To respond to this we have had more of a focus on internal recruitment, secondments and re-training our people than looking for external hires.”

And with such competition for talent, even in the depths of recession, pressure on margins has not been a major issue, Davage says. “There were pressure points but we still maintained ok margins. Our margins for placement have not come down.”

But recruiters can still demonstrate added value by providing market information, according to Toby Fowlston, director at Robert Walters.

“In uncertain times recruiters can go that bit further and add real value by giving both clients and candidates accurate market information. “Salary benchmarking is key right now and we are advising employers on what kinds of packages are securing the best candidates out there in the market. Clients can use salary surveys, but we also provide sector-specific salary benchmarking too.”

But this is one war for talent that shows no sign of abating, says Stefan Pillinger, director at Eximius. “Accountancy is empirically understaffed. In the last two years, we were working with investment banks and FTSE 100 businesses, but actually accountants are always in demand and there is never enough of them.

Most businesses, even in boom time, were running 15-20% under headcount in accountancy.

So where an investment bank may have cut headcount by 10%, that still leaves 10% deficiency in accountancy.

“Most businesses have not been letting accountants go. Businesses are seeing staff competition and paying a premium for it. If you want a top-tier, director-level accountant, you will have to overpay for it. There are not that many guys sitting around on the market.”