In a sector that was generally being seen a safe bet for most employees even amid these torrid layoff times, the tech consulting and services is now also getting on the layoff bandwagon. Accenture, one of the largest tech consulting and services company on the planet, has announced laying off 19000 employees, amounting to 2.5% of its global workforce.
Along with that, the company has also lowered its annual revenue and profit forecasts. With that, Accenture has joined an infamous list of tech behemoths, laying off employees in thousands amid economic downturn and post-pandemic slowdown in digital tech growth.
The reduction in jobs, over half of which affects individuals in non-billable corporate functions, will be undertaken in the next 18 months, Accenture said in an SEC filing (PDF) Thursday. This, even when it increased its workforce by 38,000 in the FY ending Feb 2023.
“For the second quarter of fiscal 2023, attrition, excluding involuntary terminations, was 12%, down from 18% in the second quarter of fiscal 2022. We evaluate voluntary attrition, adjust levels of new hiring and use involuntary terminations as a means to keep our supply of skills and resources in balance with changes in client demand,” Accenture added further.
Accenture is now expecting annual revenue growth for the fiscal 2023 to be between 8% to 10%, a fall from the from 8% to 11% range it had forecasted earlier.
“Our results of operations are affected by economic conditions, including macroeconomic conditions, the overall inflationary environment and levels of business confidence. There continues to be significant economic and geopolitical uncertainty in many markets around the world, which has impacted and may continue to impact our business, particularly with regard to wage inflation and volatility in foreign currency exchange rates. In some cases, these conditions have slowed the pace and level of client spending,”, wrote the Dublin-HQed tech major.
