EY UK plans to cut 150 jobs as demand for certain services drops

• EY UK initiates another round of job cuts, targeting 150 more roles across various business lines.
• The Big 4 firms are grappling with increased costs and a decline in demand for certain services.

EY dismisses 150 employees 

EY UK is considering cutting 150 jobs, as the Big 4 firms navigate reduced demand for certain services.

In response to a market slowdown, EY has initiated 10 redundancy consultations in recent months.

With approximately 21,000 employees in the UK, the impact of these cuts will be felt in,

• EY-Parthenon, its strategy and transactions advisory business – 40 positions will be eliminated.
• EY Riverview Law, acquired in 2018 to enhance the firm’s legal managed services practice – around 55 job cuts.

The reasons behind EY’s decision

The Big 4, namely, KPMG, Deloitte, EY, and PwC are grappling with increased costs and diminishing demand amid a challenging economic landscape.

In August, the FT reported EY’s reduction of around 150 jobs in its financial services consulting unit, the first batch of redundancies for the year. This brought about anticipations of less generous pay increases across the firm.

This redundancy initiative has now broadened to encompass various business lines, with sectors like transactions and deal advisory expected to face ongoing challenges into 2024.

In April, EY’s UK partners were advised to brace for cost-cutting measures following the dissolution of Project Everest. It was a strategy aiming to separate the firm’s audit and consulting divisions globally. (It collapsed, by the way)

Notably, EY’s UK partners saw an average income of £761,000 in the latest financial year, reflecting a 5% decline from the preceding 12 months.

Also read: Deloitte announces job cuts days after EY let go of 3000 US employees. Will the Indian staff see the effect?

Layoffs in the Big 4 – 2023

As we approach the end of 2023, reflecting on the year reveals significant layoffs, particularly within tech and financial services giants.

Here is a brief overview:

EY:

• EY initiated job cuts in April 2023, impacting approximately 5% of its U.S. workforce, totaling around 3,000 employees. The reasons cited for the cuts were overcapacity and a slower economy.
• On a different note, EY has opted to postpone the start dates for some new graduates in the U.S. until July or August of 2024, as reported by the Financial Times.

Deloitte:

• This Big 4 firm announced job cuts in April 2023, affecting 1.5% of its global workforce. This represents 1,200 of their employees, primarily in the US.
• Their financial advisory services got the blow, due to a decline in merger and acquisition activity.

KPMG:

• In June, KPMG US declared to cut 5% of jobs.
• KPMG UK followed suit by announcing to lay off 6% of its deal advisory staff.

PwC

• In November, PwC UK expressed its plans to cut around 600 jobs.
• PwC Australia is not far behind. After a government-related tax scandal, they are also considering cutting more than 330 jobs.

Will the Big 4 witness the same amount of layoffs in 2024?