Deloitte to cut 1,200 jobs in U.S. amid slowdown in consulting

Deloitte plans to cut about 1,200 jobs in the U.S., or roughly 1.4% of its workforce there, responding to a slowdown in the consulting business that has created uncertainty among current and prospective employees.

“Our U.S. businesses continue to experience strong client demand,” Jonathan Gandal, a Deloitte managing director, said by email. “As growth in select practices moderates, we are taking modest personnel actions where necessary.” He declined to say where growth was slowing. Deloitte’s U.S. head count grew 25% to more than 86,000 last year, according to a company report.

The job cuts are less deep than those made by some of Deloitte’s rivals in the professional-services field. KPMG said in February that it was laying off less than 2% of its U.S. workforce, Accenture is slashing 2.5% of its overall staff and Ernst & Young said that 5% of its U.S. workers would lose their jobs. McKinsey is also reducing head count by about 2,000 jobs, one of its biggest culls ever.

These firms – some of whom give advice to clients on how to conduct their own layoffs – have also slammed the brakes on a multiyear hiring binge, and some are delaying start dates for new hires. Ernst & Young, known as EY, plans to hire thousands fewer people this year than it initially expected, and is also grappling with the fallout of its scrapped breakup plan.

The rapid downshift in the recruitment climate has soured some recent graduates who had aspired to careers in consulting, according to Tom Rodenhauser, managing partner of Kennedy Research Reports, which tracks the sector.

“They’re now saying, ‘Do I even want to go in this direction at all?’ ” he said.

The Financial Times reported earlier on the cuts.