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Any beginning college business student can tell you that when demand outpaces supply, price goes up.

Which might explain why so many of them are flocking to the field of accounting, where the "Sarbanes-Oxley effect" has pushed up demand for workers -- as well as salaries.

"Currently in accounting, there are more opportunities than candidates," said Chuck Conner, manager of recruiting for the Pittsburgh accounting firm Schneider Downs. "We call it the talent war. In the same way people fought over land, we might have five or six firms making offers to the same candidates."

The Sarbanes-Oxley Act, passed by Congress in 2002, tightened internal controls and mandated auditor independence in the wake of corporate scandals such as Enron and WorldCom. To comply with it, corporations and accounting firms have ramped up hiring, piquing interest among college students.

In other words, undergraduates are majoring in accounting for the same reason that Willie Sutton robbed banks: that's where the money is.

A study by the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants in the spring of 2000 showed that 2 percent of college students were majoring in accounting. The same survey done in the spring of 2006 showed that figure had ballooned to 10 percent.

Since the passage of Sarbanes-Oxley, commonly known as SOX , Schneider Downs has hired about 35 percent more accountants, said Mr. Conner. That includes a doubling of the number of students hired straight out of college each year, from roughly eight to 15.

At accounting giant KPMG's Pittsburgh office, the firm now employs 200 accountants -- about 50 percent more than the days before SOX . The number of entry-level hires, now 26, also has increased about 50 percent.

Jeffrey DeMarco, director of human resources for KPMG, said that the global firm has an adequate number of entry-level hires to meet demand. Where SOX is really taking a toll is in experienced hires, he said. In such an "extremely-tight job market," there just aren't enough bodies to fill the expanded number of positions .

Experts attribute part of the shortage to the fact that five to 10 years ago, accounting wasn't high on the list of careers for bright, math-oriented students. The explosion of dot.coms and their demand for computer, software and other engineers was just too great a lure.

"In the '90s, if you're sitting there in high school and you're good in math, you're thinking 'OK, I could start at $30,000 a year as an accounting major or study engineering and make $50,000 or $60,000,' " said Mr. Conner. "Accounting just suffered."

These days, accounting salaries have risen and technology jobs seem less stable. An entry-level accountant working for a large firm would make about $45,000 this year, said Mr. Conner.

It's a figure that is resonating with college students.

A few years ago, there were 120 accounting majors at Duquesne University, said professor Sharon Green, who recently served as chair of the accounting department. Now, there are 180. And they're not having trouble finding employment. "The vast majority have jobs locked up well before graduation," she said.

One of the largest areas of growth, said Dr. Green, is in internal audits. Corporations used to do their own internal audit, but now are outsourcing them to accounting firms due to the increased complexity required by SOX . At Schneider Downs, the firm recently started up an internal audit division.

To fill its new positions, Schneider Downs has been forced to look harder than it used to for job candidates. Prior to SOX , the firm recruited almost exclusively from local universities. Now, Mr. Conner is looking for entry-level hires from as far away as Ohio State and Notre Dame.

At KPMG, Mr. DeMarco said that after a few years of intense growth, he thinks SOX -induced hiring is finally starting to level off. But overall hiring should still remain strong.

"I've been around for 25 years," he said. "This is the best market I've seen."