With Accenture announcing a nearly 3 percent reduction in its nearly 738,000-strong workforce, another 19,000 consultants and tech employees are expected to lose their jobs.
A Decision amidst Uncertainties
Professional services company Accenture has announced significant reductions to its worldwide workforce, with nearly 20,000 jobs, or 2.5% of its total headcount, to be lost. Scaled to Australia and New Zealand, that would amount to more than 150 regional layoffs out of about 6,500 workers, with back office staff particularly at risk, mirroring a recent worldwide cut of up to 2,000 professionals made by McKinsey & Company.
A senior source said that “locally, it will be non-billable with very little impact on client facing, as we have focused on performance achievement,” but an official Accenture spokesperson refused to comment. The source went on to say that despite the fact that 800 senior leaders in “markets and services” are anticipated to lose their jobs globally, “we are still growing locally as well as hiring in high-demand areas.”
Similar to McKinsey, the cutbacks are taking place at a time of record global revenues, but the consulting industry is feeling the pinch as a result of business uncertainty brought on by high inflation and other global economic factors. Accenture, which made almost $16 billion over the past three months, also slightly lowered its yearly profit estimate in its first-half reporting, from between 8 percent and 11 percent growth to 8 percent to 10 percent.
Accenture layoffs: IT services firm announces 19,000 job cuts, 2.5% of its workforce
Effects on the Consulting Market
The consulting employment market has recently been hit hard by both job losses and a transient, incredibly employee-friendly environment, including in Australia. Riding high prior to the start of the global pandemic in early 2020, many of the largest consultancies in the country—including KPMG, Deloitte, and PwC—scrambled early to stem their losses before running out of staff in a surprisingly buoyant consulting rebound.
