Big four shed UK staff after pandemic hiring boom

afr.com:

London | When Deloitte cautioned staff earlier this month that it planned to cut about 800 jobs in the UK, it blamed slowing growth and economic uncertainty.

The warning only added to a sense of gloom about the prospects of the big four accountancy firms, three of which are planning at least some job losses and redeployments in Britain.

But cuts at the big four – which include Deloitte, EY, KPMG and PwC – reflect something more complex than a simple slowdown in growth, according to people involved.

Recruiters and analysts said the need to shed staff partly reflected excessive hiring in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic. It was also the result of a slowdown in staff leaving the big consultancies, as higher interest rates and greater wariness reduced outside opportunities, they said.

That means the cuts might not – so far at least – spell the start of a period of prolonged doom, experts said.

James O’Dowd, founder of Patrick Morgan, a recruitment consultancy, said the big four essentially had too many staff in some areas. “The dynamic is relatively clear: they’ve overhired,” he said.

Fiona Czerniawska, chief executive of Source, an adviser on the professional services industry, said the current era was similar to the aftermath of the dotcom boom two decades ago. The challenge then was to shed excess labour to match demand that, while still growing, had not kept up with the breakneck pace of firms’ hiring.

“The market is still growing,” she said. “Clients’ demand for external help is still strong.”

Meanwhile, Andrew Errington-Thomas, chief executive of Consulting Point, another specialist recruiter, said demand for consultants in some other parts of the world remained buoyant, meaning there were opportunities for those