Multinational professional services firm, KPMG, will be slashing about 200 jobs in Britain amidst unprecedented fall in demand for professional services, due to the pandemic. The Company, which is one of the Big Four, will be laying off a 100 people from its consulting business and another 100 employees providing back-office support across departments, including human resources, in the UK.
Presently, the Company has about 3000 employees in the consulting division and about 2,500 back-office support staff. While demand in the cybersecurity space has not been affected, demand has definitely plummeted in other consulting roles, which is threatening sustainability.
Amongst other cost-cutting measures, KPMG may also alter the pension contributions, which may impact about 20 per cent of the workforce. However, a final decision will be taken in this regard after discussions with the employees. The average age of staff at KPMG is 27, and a majority already possess pension deals wherein the employer contributes 4.5 per cent.
Earlier this month, Accenture, which is also one of the major consulting firms had announced the layoff of about eight per cent of its staff in Britain. Professional services company, Deloitte, which is also part of the Big Four slashed about 700 jobs in Australia last month, amidst falling revenues due to the pandemic. PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) has also taken a similar step letting go about 400 of its employees in Australia.
