Deloitte has told employees it will cut about 1,200 jobs in the US, becoming the latest of the Big Four accounting firms to react to a slowdown in the advisory side of its business.
They were told the cuts amounted to 1.5 percent of the US workforce, but would be higher in areas such as the financial advisory business, which has been hit by a decline in merger and acquisition activity.
Leaders of Deloitte’s risk and financial advisory division revealed the extent of the cuts in a call with employees Thursday, according to employees who discussed the matter in online forums. Reductions in RFA are as high as 3 percent.
“Our US business continues to experience strong customer demand,” said a Deloitte spokesperson. “Because of moderation of growth in selected practices, we take modest personal action when necessary.”
Deloitte’s cuts are shallower than those of competitors EY and KPMG. In February, KPMG said it would lay off consulting staff totaling nearly 2 percent of its US workforce.
EY said earlier this week that 5 percent of its American employees will lose their jobs — 3,000 people in all. Its announcement came less than a week after EY’s US leadership canceled a project to spin off its consulting business after more than a year of planning.
McKinsey, the strategic consulting firm, and Accenture, which specializes in information technology consulting, also cut jobs.
Deloitte and its competitors went on a post-pandemic hiring spree, when customers were clamoring for advice on how to transform their IT to handle remote working and the companies’ mergers and acquisitions activity was booming. The number of Deloitte employees in the US swelled from 65,000 in 2024 to 80,000 last year, according to its annual Transparency Report.
While parts of the consulting industry are still growing strongly, others have shrunk. In a survey of specialist advisors conducted this month by investment bank William Blair, only a third of M&A advisors reported quarter-on-quarter growth in demand.