Deloitte plans to cut hundreds of jobs in its advisory division

Deloitte said the “challenging market” was forcing it to consider the shape of the business.

Deloitte plans to cut more staff from its advisory division as demand for consultancy services declines.

The Big Four firm informed staff on Tuesday that parts of its UK business would be undergoing a restructuring process that would “put some roles at risk of redundancy,” Deloitte told B-17.

A Deloitte spokesperson said the job cuts were still subject to consultation. Under UK law, all companies making more than 100 redundancies must carry out a consultation for at least 45 days before dismissing employees.

An internal message to staff seen by B-17 said the cuts will impact less than 1% of Deloitte’s 27,000-strong UK workforce and will affect staff from the strategy, risk and transactions, and technology and transformation divisions.

180 roles will be cut, according to people familiar with the decision, The Financial Times reported.

Deloitte’s restructuring is the latest in over a year of redundancies and firings as it tries to balance costs and workforce numbers against slowing demand for consulting services.

In its internal messages, Deloitte said the planned cuts are “necessary to enable us to navigate the remainder of a challenging FY25.”

“Clients continue to be more cautious in their spending and are taking longer to commit to new engagements,” it said.

This fall, the firm fired about 250 employees from advisory services in the UK who it deemed to be underperforming. A source with knowledge of the matter told B-17 in October that about 1% of the UK workforce had left the company as part of internal “performance management processes.”

Deloitte also carried out 100 redundancies in February 2024 and 800 redundancies in September 2023.

“In the context of an ongoing challenging market, we have to carefully consider the shape of our firm,” Deloitte told B-17 on Wednesday.

The upheaval comes as the major consulting firms struggle to adjust to slowing demand after a surge in growth during the pandemic.

According to its latest annual report, Deloitte’s global consulting revenues grew by 1.9% in the 2024 financial year ending 31 May. Over the same period in 2023, consulting revenues grew by 19.1%.

The slowdown has also affected partner payouts at the firm, which fell by 4.5% to about $1.27 million. Equity partners took home roughly $63,000 less than they did a year ago.

Deloitte’s global workforce expanded to 460,000 in the 2024 financial year, an increase of 3,000. Tens of thousands of new hires were made in the previous two years.