Hiring of finance and accounting employees is expected to improve in the first quarter of next year, according to a survey of CFOs by staffing company Robert Half International.

Plante Moran has hired 135 accounting, tax and consulting interns and professionals and entry-level staff who are slated to start January 1.

The nation’s unemployment rate fell four-tenths of a percentage point to 8.6 percent, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported Friday, marking the lowest unemployment rate since March 2009.

Accounting firms are going back to basics in their retention efforts, with renewed focus on establishing and building a quality culture.

Employees at small businesses made less money in November than in October and were working fewer hours, even though 55,000 new jobs were added at small businesses in November, according to Intuit.

Jobs in the private sector shot up by 206,000 in November, according to payroll giant ADP, outperforming most forecasts.

The House overwhelmingly passed legislation repealing the 3 percent withholding mandate on government contractors, along with a tax credit for hiring veterans.

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CBIZ found that small business employment fell for the fourth month in a row in October.

The unemployment rate dipped one-tenth of a percentage point to 9.0 percent as employers added 80,000 jobs in October, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported Friday.

Private sector employers added 110,000 new jobs to their payrolls in October, mainly in the service sector, according to the monthly employment report from payroll giant ADP.

The accounting profession has traditionally attracted high-caliber candidates, those with top-flight financial and technology skill sets and long on ambition.

Only 15 percent of the small business owners in a recent survey expect the number of jobs to increase at their companies over the next 12 months.

CBIZ reported a further drop-off in small business hiring in September.

The unemployment rate remained stuck at 9.1 percent, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported Friday, despite the addition of 103,000 jobs.

The private sector added 91,000 jobs in September, according to the latest national employment report from payroll giant ADP.

Small businesses created 55,000 new jobs in September, while employees worked more hours and made more money, according to figures from Intuit Inc.’s Online Payroll clients.

Accounting Today has released its annual list of the Best Accounting Firms to Work For, which identifies and honors the best places of employment in the accounting industry.

While Southeast accounting firm Elliott Davis scored first in four categories of university and employer ranking Web site Vault.com’s Accounting Quality of Life Rankings for 2012, accounting firms shared the wealth in the other 11 categories.

The top factor in a failed hire, aside from performance issues, is a poor skills match, according to 36 percent of chief financial officers interviewed for a Robert Half Finance & Accounting survey.