Deloitte cuts 7,000+ jobs in US, Australia and India
Consultancy.uk
Deloitte could be set to offload more than 10,000 of its global staff in the wake of the coronavirus crisis. The firm’s CEO has been far from conciliatory while the first wave of redundancies begins, however, with Punit Renjen having issued a series of statements celebrating Deloitte’s recent financial performance, and lauding its historic support for staff “through wars, recessions and pandemics.”
The consulting industry stands to take a sizeable hit from the Covid-19 crisis, and according to the latest estimates, it will be worth around 18% lower at end of 2020 as a result. The drop of $28 billion currently forecast could prove catastrophic to even the largest players in the industry – though it might be hard to tell from the victorious tone of Deloitte’s Global CEO when discussing his firm’s anticipated results for 2020.
The UK consulting industry may well face a worse fall in revenue than many of its international counterparts – with the country currently facing a more-than 20% fall in GDP in 2020 thanks in part to the Government’s contradictory messages on the severity of the pandemic, a delayed imposition of a lock-down, and stringent cuts to healthcare spending being maintained during the crisis. The large impact of coronavirus and the continued uncertainty of Brexit mean the UK is currently facing a 22% decrease in revenues.
With that in mind, those employed by the UK wing of global consulting and audit firms such as Deloitte will be looking on anxiously, as their global parent firms make swathes of layoffs elsewhere. On record, the number of people axed at Deloitte already stands at around 7,500 – including a huge 5,000 professionals in the US, 1,500 in India, 700 in Australia and 200 in Canada. However, the real number of former staff left fuming at their CEO’s arguably tone-deaf statements may actually be even higher.
Based on global tips received from sources close to the story, Consultancy.org estimates that the number of jobs lost is actually closer to 10,000 – and worse still, in the long-term, the full scale of the layoffs is likely to stretch even further. Deloitte’s strong financial position had seen it defer the hit it would take from Covid-19. Deloitte’s financial year runs from June to June, and in the first three quarters of its current financial year it was business as usual, gaining close to double digit growth globally.
In the fourth quarter of Deloitte’s financial year, as the pandemic hit, its growth plummeted. Now, as the firm enters the first quarter of its new year, it is already moving quickly to recalibrate its workforce in its strongest market of the US. With several larger members firms in Asia and Europe yet to announce job cuts, they will likely follow suit as even the firm’s presence in the world’s largest consulting market could not avoid such measures.
On the surface of it, Deloitte’s UK operations seemed to receive a glut of work during Covid-19. A heightened number of insolvencies have kept the firm’s restructuring wing busy, while Deloitte was also often involved in the Government’s response to the crisis, as well as supporting financial institutions with their efforts to bolster smaller businesses. However, the firm’s consulting work is understood to have been hit hard, along with several other key service lines. In that case, it seems likely that the UK will also see large cuts, like its US equivalent.
Consultancy.uk
Deloitte could be set to offload more than 10,000 of its global staff in the wake of the coronavirus crisis. The firm’s CEO has been far from conciliatory while the first wave of redundancies begins, however, with Punit Renjen having issued a series of statements celebrating Deloitte’s recent financial performance, and lauding its historic support for staff “through wars, recessions and pandemics.”
The consulting industry stands to take a sizeable hit from the Covid-19 crisis, and according to the latest estimates, it will be worth around 18% lower at end of 2020 as a result. The drop of $28 billion currently forecast could prove catastrophic to even the largest players in the industry – though it might be hard to tell from the victorious tone of Deloitte’s Global CEO when discussing his firm’s anticipated results for 2020.
The UK consulting industry may well face a worse fall in revenue than many of its international counterparts – with the country currently facing a more-than 20% fall in GDP in 2020 thanks in part to the Government’s contradictory messages on the severity of the pandemic, a delayed imposition of a lock-down, and stringent cuts to healthcare spending being maintained during the crisis. The large impact of coronavirus and the continued uncertainty of Brexit mean the UK is currently facing a 22% decrease in revenues.
With that in mind, those employed by the UK wing of global consulting and audit firms such as Deloitte will be looking on anxiously, as their global parent firms make swathes of layoffs elsewhere. On record, the number of people axed at Deloitte already stands at around 7,500 – including a huge 5,000 professionals in the US, 1,500 in India, 700 in Australia and 200 in Canada. However, the real number of former staff left fuming at their CEO’s arguably tone-deaf statements may actually be even higher.
In the fourth quarter of Deloitte’s financial year, as the pandemic hit, its growth plummeted. Now, as the firm enters the first quarter of its new year, it is already moving quickly to recalibrate its workforce in its strongest market of the US. With several larger members firms in Asia and Europe yet to announce job cuts, they will likely follow suit as even the firm’s presence in the world’s largest consulting market could not avoid such measures.
On the surface of it, Deloitte’s UK operations seemed to receive a glut of work during Covid-19. A heightened number of insolvencies have kept the firm’s restructuring wing busy, while Deloitte was also often involved in the Government’s response to the crisis, as well as supporting financial institutions with their efforts to bolster smaller businesses. However, the firm’s consulting work is understood to have been hit hard, along with several other key service lines. In that case, it seems likely that the UK will also see large cuts, like its US equivalent.
