PwC to Cut 1,800 US Workers, Restructure Technology Unit (2)

PwC LLP will hand out pink slips to 1,800 US employees next month as the accounting giant streamlines its advisory practice and shifts in-house technology developers to work more closely with front-line professionals.

Some employees in the firm’s tax and assurance practices along with staff assigned to off-shore offices will also receive layoff notices in October. Staff learned of the impending job cuts, which will affect about 2.4% of the Big Four firm’s 75,000 employees, in a memo from the firm’s Senior Partner Paul Griggs on Wednesday, according to a person familiar with the firm’s actions.

“Execution of our strategy requires tough decisions, including those that impact our workforce,” Griggs wrote to employees, according to a copy of the memo obtained by Bloomberg Tax. “We are positioning our firm for the future, creating capacity to invest, and anticipating and reacting to the market opportunities.”

The cuts and restructuring allow PwC, also known as PricewaterhouseCoopers, to adapt to shifting market demands and move skilled staff to focus on in-demand priorities, Tim Grady, the firm’s chief operating officer, said in a statement.

The layoffs were first reported by the Wall Street Journal.

In-house technology staff will be “embedded” into the firm’s core service lines while the firm targets technology investments toward “key assets.” New technologies like generative artificial intelligence and streamlined business services functions are among priority areas for the firm, according to the memo.

PwC, which reported $22.7 billion in revenue in 2023, avoided layoffs among its US workforce until now even as other PwC affiliates and Big Four competitors shed thousands of jobs across their largest markets in 2023. The wave of layoffs followed a pandemic-era hiring frenzy two years earlier.

The US reductions are in line with recent downsizing at peers including Deloitte LLP, which cut 1,200 workers, and KPMG LLP, which axed 2,700 jobs through a pair of layoffs in 2023. Ernst & Young LLP eliminated 3,000 jobs that same year.

Layoffs however continued into 2024 and in May, Grant Thornton LLP laid off 350 workers.

Embattled PwC affiliates in China and Australia have both cut jobs in recent months. The Chinese arm is bracing for hefty fines and a potential practice suspension over its audits of collapsed property developer Evergrande. The firm’s Australia affiliate is still reeling from a tax scandal.