PwC cuts 1500 jobs in the US, sends employees Microsoft Teams meeting invite email marked ...

PwC, one of the Big Four accounting firms, has laid off about 1,500 employees in the US. According to a Financial Times report, the layoffs affect 2% of PwC’s 75,000 employees in the US. Quoting people familiar with the matter, the report states that most of the impacted staff worked in the audit and tax departments. The job cuts followed a months-long review of the business.Earlier, PwC had shifted hundreds of U.S. employees from less busy roles to faster-growing areas. Affected employees were notified on Monday and Tuesday this week. Hundreds of them received a Microsoft Teams meeting invite marked “time sensitive” in their email, the publication added. Many of the employees laid off had only recently joined PwC. One person who started in September told FT that they were "devastated." “Everyone was completely blindsided by the lay-offs today,” the person said.Another employee added, “Some of us were up for promotion, but instead of a promotion and a pay bump we’re now getting cut off.”The firm is also reducing campus hiring because of lower staff turnover but will honor the offers already made to last year’s interns who are scheduled to join later this year, the person said.“This was a difficult decision, and we made it with care, thoughtfulness and a deep awareness of its impact on our people, appreciating that historically low levels of attrition over consecutive years have made it necessary to take this step,” reads a statement from the company. Other Big Four firms have also announced similar job cuts. Earlier this year, Deloitte informed its employees that the group is laying off staff across its advisory business. “Overall demand for Deloitte’s services remains strong,” the firm said in an internal call then. “We are taking modest personnel actions based on moderating growth in certain areas, our government clients’ evolving needs, and low levels of voluntary attrition.”KPMG also laid off around 330 employees in the U.S. in November 2024. The firm then said it was “addressing continued low levels of attrition”.