2023 has proven to be a tough year economically for many companies. There has been a huge lift in the tech market related to AI however other industries have suffered. Consulting is one of those industries and that is why the big 4 accounting firms have started to lay people off. Most of their layoffs are in the consulting practices. The layoffs in consulting also relate to private equity and M&A activity. This is as a result of a slowdown in investments around the world.

EY – 3,000 layoffs – April 2023 – US

Deloitte 1,200 layoffs – April 2023 – US

KPMG – 3,000 Layoffs – As of June 2023 – US

Grant Thornton – 300 Layoffs – May 2023 – US

PwC – no official layoffs. People are saying that there are going to be silent layoffs.

The reason that the EY layoffs are so much larger than the other companies is because EY had a failed break up plan. As part of that failed breakup plan, EY had to lay off a bunch of employees to make sure that partners can still get good compensation.

Updates

May 30 – Goldman is going to be laying off 250 employees after laying off 4,000 employees earlier in the year.

May 24 – Meta plans to lay of 6,000 employees after letting go of 4,000 employees previously. This was part of their plans to lay off 10,000 employees.