Just a few weeks back, one of our clients called us in, well, not quite a panic, but certainly with a bit of concern.  The subject?  The cost of hiring new accounting graduates was expected to increase nearly 5% for the spring of 2016. “Were we able to confirm this?” For accounting firms, this is a big deal, of course, as their new “class” of graduates represents their future, and there is an obvious ripple effect throughout the rest of the workforce if starting salaries increase dramatically. Using the magic of the internet, we traced this back, through article after article, each citing each other, until we found the one, and I repeat ONE, source of this “projection” – the “hiring guide” for a major recruiting firm.

Since this “projection” didn’t really tally with any other data we could find, and was somewhat in conflict with some college graduate starting…