Here's the deal
65% of surveyed accounting firms said caregiving affected career progress during the past year, and 41% reported caregiving-related resignations.
Every surveyed firm offered remote or hybrid work, and 94% offered flexible scheduling, but those options did not guarantee continued access to career-making assignments.
Only 24% had a formal alternative path to partner, while 47% handled those paths informally.
The talent shortage may already be inside the firm
Accounting firms keep hunting for talent. The 2026 Accounting MOVE Project points to a less obvious leak: experienced people who stay employed but quietly fall off the leadership track.
The survey found that caregiving affected career progress at 65% of firms during the past year. Another 59% said caregiving had definitely or possibly contributed to turnover over the past few years, and 53% said it was affecting the partner and leadership pipeline.
This is not just an employee benefit story. Mid-career accountants are often the people building client relationships, reviewing work and learning how to run a practice. When that group slows down or leaves, a firm loses years of training that cannot be replaced by posting another job.
Flexibility solves only the first problem
The firms in the survey were not ignoring flexibility. Every one offered remote or hybrid work, and 94% offered flexible schedules.
Those policies can help a parent or family caregiver remain employed. The catch is what happens after the schedule changes.
Important client work, stretch assignments and leadership opportunities are the currency of promotion. If flexible workers get fewer of them, they may remain on payroll while their route to partner gets longer or disappears.
Bonnie Buol Ruszczyk, president of the Accounting MOVE Project, put it plainly: "Flexibility can help someone stay employed, but staying isn't the same as advancing."
Caregiving is broader than childcare
All surveyed firms said employees were managing childcare. But 76% also saw employees caring for aging family members, and 65% saw people caring for children and older adults at the same time.
Three out of four firms said women carried most of the caregiving responsibility, though men were affected too. That matters because women made up 55% of professionals at the surveyed firms and at least half of the workforce from associate through director.
Representation then dropped to 42% at the partner and principal level and 41% on management committees. The survey does not prove caregiving caused the entire drop, but it shows where firms should look for a preventable break in the pipeline.
Informal deals are hard to trust
Only 24% of firms had a formal, documented alternative path to partner. Nearly twice as many, 47%, handled alternative paths informally.
An informal deal can work when the right leader is in the room. It can also vanish after a manager changes, a client moves or a busy season gets rough. Employees may not know what performance still counts, how long the detour will last or how they can return to the standard track.
A documented path does not need to promise promotion. It should explain how workloads can change, which experiences still matter, who reviews progress and when the employee can step back into the main pipeline.
The number to watch is advancement
Firms already track turnover. The sharper test is whether people using flexibility receive major assignments, build client relationships and advance at rates that make sense for their experience.
That turns a vague culture promise into something leaders can inspect. It also tells the firm whether flexibility is preserving talent or simply delaying a resignation.
The practical risk is not that caregivers stop being capable. It is that a temporary limit on time becomes a permanent limit on opportunity. With experienced accountants already scarce, firms cannot afford to confuse staying with moving forward.
