Accenture to cut 19,000 jobs as it lowers profit forecast

The consultancy said the layoffs will mainly affect employees in non-billable corporate functions

The job cuts at Accenture will be carried out over the next 18 months. Reuters

Global IT consultancy Accenture has announced plans to cut 19,000 jobs, or about 2.5 per cent of its global workforce, and also lowered its profit forecast over worries of a global economic slowdown.

"While we continue to hire, especially to support our strategic growth priorities, during the second quarter of fiscal 2023, we initiated actions to streamline our operations and transform our non-billable corporate functions to reduce costs," it said in a statement on Thursday.

"Over the next 18 months, these actions are expected to result in the departure of approximately 19,000 people (or 2.5 per cent of our current workforce), and we expect over half of these departures will consist of people in our non-billable corporate functions."

The Dutch company's workforce was approximately 738,000 as of February 28, 2023.

Since late last year, companies ― primarily those in the tech sector ― have been laying off hundreds of thousands of employees because of declining earnings and growing fears of a recession in the US.

Amazon, Microsoft, Alphabet, Facebook’s parent company Meta, Yahoo, Zoom and Spotify are among the companies that have cut thousands of jobs in recent months.

Meanwhile, consulting companies have also started to trim their workforces. Management consultancy McKinsey is planning to cut 2,000 jobs, Bloomberg reported last month.

Accenture reported a 9 per cent annual increase in revenue in local currency for the second quarter of fiscal 2023 ended in February, to $15.8 billion.

The company now expects full-year annual revenue growth to be between 8 per cent and 10 per cent in local currency terms, compared with its previous projection of 8 per cent to 11 per cent.

"We are ... taking steps to lower our costs in fiscal year 2024 and beyond while continuing to invest in our business and our people to capture the significant growth opportunities ahead," said Julie Sweet, chair and chief executive of Accenture.