Layoff Fears Are Growing—But So Is Professional Drive
The Institute of Finance & Management (IOFM) recently released its 2025 Accounts Payable Career Satisfaction Report. This annual report surveys accounts payable (AP) professionals about their current work experience, challenges, and career ambitions.
One thing that stood out in this year’s report was a big jump in the number of AP professionals who are worried about layoffs impacting their departments. In 2024, 27% of respondents indicated they were concerned, and it rose to 45% in 2025.
This isn’t surprising given the current economic volatility—rising inflation, recession concerns, labor market strain, and forecasted supply chain disruptions tied to tariffs and trade tensions.
However, the survey also shows that AP professionals are using this uncertainty to fuel their appetite for professional growth—even if they don’t believe they have many opportunities at their fingertips.
Let’s dig in.
Upskilling Under Pressure: How AP Pros Are Securing Their Careers
Despite nearly half of AP professionals feeling concerned about layoffs, the data shows a motivation to get ahead of it. When asked how they were preparing for potential layoffs:
- 59% are learning new skills and technologies like automation and AI.
- 53% are taking on stretch projects and value-added work.
- Only 13% of respondents said they weren’t doing anything to prepare for layoffs.
These themes were echoed in other areas of the survey.
When asked which tasks AP professionals would most like to eliminate from their workday, the top three answers were: manual invoice approvals (46%), manual data entry (45%), and exception handling (39%).
Nearly three quarters (71%) said they would use automation tools if they were available.
When they were asked how they would like to spend their extra time if it was freed up with automation tools, the top two answers were—you guessed it: professional development (31%) and stretch projects and value-add work (29%).
Only 11% would get ahead on daily work, and even less said they would use it for self-care (such as using more PTO) or teambuilding.
However, despite this drive to free themselves from manual work and advance their skillset, there appears to be a disconnect between AP professionals and their finance leaders.
When Ambition Meets a Dead End: The AP Growth Gap
Only 50% of respondents believe there are professional growth or skills development opportunities for them at their current organization, and only 41% believe there are career advancement opportunities for them.
"There are career advancement opportunities for me at my current organization."
Continuing this trend, only a quarter (25%) of respondents said they work on strategic initiatives for their company on a weekly or daily basis.
What’s even more interesting is when we cut the data by level of automation in their AP department:
- 70% of those who “never” work on strategic initiatives are in manual/partially automated environments.
- 60% of those doing daily strategic work are in largely or fully automated environments.
This suggests that access to automation tools can help give AP professionals more opportunities to contribute strategic work.
This is something for finance leaders to consider to uplevel both the skills of their teammates and the organizational contributions of their department. The data-driven insights at their fingertips can help drive business growth—if leveraged.
Turn Insight into Action: Build Your Own Growth Path
If these survey findings resonate with you, now is the time to take your career future into your own hands. Find opportunities to contribute to strategic initiatives like data analysis and reporting, take the lead on researching tools to transform your processes, and learn all you can about your existing tools and features to position yourself as an expert.
As we approach the end of the year, which often includes annual reviews, budget planning, and career conversations, now is the perfect time to polish your ideas and bring a proposed growth plan to your manager.
To learn more about how your experience working in AP compares to your peers and for more practical strategies on how you can advocate for your professional growth, download IOFM’s full report: 2025 Accounts Payable Career Satisfaction Report.
More Insights
Check out our infographic for a side-by-side comparison of AP professionals with and without automation technology using insights from IOFM’s survey.
If you want to learn more about how finance professionals are thinking about and navigating the current economic landscape, download our latest report: Are Finance Teams Equipped for Sustained Economic Volatility?