NEW YORK: British financial services giant EY, which last week dropped a plan to split its audit and advisory units, said on Monday (April 17) it will cut 3,000 US jobs, citing overcapacity at the firm.
“After assessing the impact of current economic conditions, strong employee retention rates and overcapacity in parts of our firm, we have made the difficult business decision to separate approximately 3,000 US employees, representing less than 5% of our US workforce,” said an EY spokesperson.
The move comes after EY stopped its planned reorganisation, called Project Everest, which aimed to accelerate growth and avoid conflicts of interest. The change was opposed by the firm’s US branch.
EY said the job cuts “are part of the ongoing management of our business and not a result of the recently concluded strategic review”, the spokesperson said.
The job cuts follow recent downsizings at other large accounting firms and consultancies.
Corporate America has been hit by a wave of layoffs after the Federal Reserve’s quantitative tightening yanked the economy out of pandemic-era exuberance.
Among EY’s “Big Four” peers, KPMG is reportedly laying off some staff. Deloitte and PricewaterhouseCoopers are also part of the Big Four.
Tech consultancy Accenture announced in March it was cutting 19,000 jobs, or 2.5% of its workforce. KPMG and McKinsey have also announced job cuts recently. – AFP, Reuters
