Deloitte plans to cut about 1,200 jobs in the US, or roughly 1.4% of its workforce there, in response to a slowdown in consulting that has created uncertainty among current and prospective employees.
“Our US business continues to experience strong customer demand,” Jonathan Gandal, Deloitte’s managing director, said via email. “Because of moderation of growth in selected practices, we take modest personal action when necessary.” He declined to disclose where the growth is slowing. Deloitte’s bosses in the US rose 25% to more than 86,000 last year, according to the company’s report.
Deloitte has a huge campus in Westlake with hundreds of workers, including the “Deloitte University” training center, which it decided to invest $300 million in expanding a year ago.
The job cuts are less deep than some of Deloitte’s competitors in the professional services space. KPMG said in February it would lay off less than 2% of its US workforce, Accenture will cut 2.5% of its total staff, and Ernst & Young said 5% of its US employees will lose their jobs. McKinsey is also cutting staff by about 2,000 jobs, one of the largest culls ever.
These companies — some of which give clients advice on how to make their layoffs — have also slammed the brakes on a multiyear hiring frenzy, and some are delaying start dates for new hires. Ernst & Young, better known as EY, plans to hire thousands of fewer people this year than initially expected, and it’s also grappling with the fallout from its canceled breakup plan.
The rapid shift in the employment climate has strained some recent graduates who were eyeing jobs in consulting, according to Tom Rodenhauser, managing partner at Kennedy Research Reports, which tracks the sector.
“They’re now saying, ‘Do I even want to go that direction at all?'” he said. “
The Financial Times reported earlier about the cuts.
Matthew Boyle Bloomberg