Deloitte UK plans 100 more redundancies

Deloitte is planning to let go more than a hundred of its consultants across the country, taking its total number of redundancies over the past year or so to above 1,000.
The Big Four firm informed staff on Tuesday that it was mulling another round of lay-offs in its advisory business, which it blamed on “an ongoing challenging market”.
In February Deloitte let go 100 people, which followed a round of 800 redundancies in September 2023. The Financial Times, which first reported the latest cuts, said that another 180 jobs are now at risk.
A spokeswoman for Deloitte confirmed that staff had been told of a “proposed restructuring”, but did not confirm the number of people set to be affected.
“In the context of an ongoing challenging market, we have to carefully consider the shape of our firm,” the spokeswoman said. “This means that we have unfortunately announced some proposed restructuring across parts of our UK business. Subject to consultation, this may put some roles at risk of redundancy. We will be doing everything we can to support the individuals impacted.”
The large consulting firms went on a hiring spree as the world came out of lockdown as they tried to keep up with booming demand for consultants. Clients wanted help on how to operate in the post-pandemic world; for many, that meant digitising their businesses and examining their supply chains. Others needed advice on mergers and acquisitions.
However, clients have reined in their spending on external advisers over the past 18 months as the global economy has cooled and deal-making has dried up.
The slowdown has left many consulting firms with more staff than they have work for, and it has been felt across the industry, with Deloitte’s rivals also having acted to slim down their workforces.
Richard Houston, Deloitte’s UK chief executive, cautioned back in September that he and the board had had to “carefully consider our cost base and make some difficult choices this year”.
His comments came alongside Deloitte UK’s annual results, which showed that partners took a 5 per cent pay cut in the year to the end of May; albeit they still received, on average, just over £1 million each.
Deloitte UK’s annual revenues grew by 2 per cent over the year to £5.7 billion, but that was a marked drop-off from the top-line growth of 14 per cent recorded in the previous year. Revenues would have fallen had stronger performances in the audit and tax divisions not offset declines in the advisory units.
The industry had been hoping to see the market recover at some point this year, but Deloitte’s latest round of cuts suggests it feels any material improvement is unlikely to come soon.