Over the course of their careers, audit partners spend decades honing industry-specific expertise on how companies across the economy operate. This provides auditors with a thorough understanding of the industries in which the companies they audit function, from financial services to oil and gas to healthcare. Coupled with audit partners’ deep understanding of the businesses they audit, the vast multidisciplinary skillsets within public accounting firms give audit partners and their teams a deep bench of experts and specialists to draw on when necessary. This allows audit partners to oversee the performance of high-quality audits for public companies within their industry sector and positions them with unique insights across businesses of all sizes, industries, and geographies in the US and globally.

The Center for Audit Quality’s (CAQ) 2023 Spring Audit Partner Pulse Survey, now in its second year, asked audit partners at the country’s leading public company audit firms about what they are observing in the industries they audit in terms of economic health indicators, challenges and risks facing businesses within their sectors, and how those businesses are adjusting their strategies in the current environment. This survey also provides insight into audit partner perspectives on emerging opportunities and risks, including artificial intelligence, cryptocurrency, exposure to China, and the talent shortage.

Completed in the spring amid continued fears of an economic recession, the CAQ continued to observe notable shifts in audit partners’ perspectives that suggest US businesses are still bracing for an economic downturn. Explore all report highlights below: