19,000 Layoffs At Accenture

Dublin, Ireland-based global services provider Accenture in March unveiled plans to lay off 19,000 employees over the next 18 months. The move by Accenture, ranked No. 1 on the CRN 2023 Solution Provider 500, came after a year in which it made 25 acquisitions and increased its head count by 39,000.

The layoffs, focused primarily on the back-office side, are coming even as the company continues to hire employees, the company said in an SEC filing.

“While we continue to hire, especially to support our strategic growth priorities, during the second quarter of fiscal 2023, we initiated actions to streamline our operations and transform our non-billable corporate functions to reduce costs. Over the next 18 months, these actions are expected to result in the departure of approximately 19,000 people (or 2.5 percent of our current workforce), and we expect over half of these departures will consist of people in our non-billable corporate functions,” Accenture wrote.

The cuts also come after a massive acquisition spree. Accenture in 2022 made 25 acquisitions worldwide, including Barcelona-based Alfa Consulting, Argentina-based Ergo, Brussels-based Greenfish and Minnesota-based The Stable.