EY to cut a further 150 UK jobs as Big Four firms grapple with waning demand

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EY is cutting a further 150 jobs in the UK, widening the scope of its redundancy programme as the Big Four firms grapple with waning demand for some of their services.

EY has launched 10 redundancy consultations in recent months amid a market slowdown, doubling the total number of redundancies this year to 300, people familiar with the matter told the Financial Times.

The cuts will affect staff in EY’s legal arm, as well as employees at EY-Parthenon, its strategy and transactions advisory business.

The firm is also in the process of shutting EY Riverview Law, the Manchester-based legal services business it bought in 2018, which will result in the majority of its employees being laid off, the people said.

The moves come as the Big Four — Deloitte, EY, KPMG and PwC — contend with higher costs and waning demand amid a difficult economic environment.

The FT reported in August that EY was cutting about 150 jobs at its financial services consulting practice, with staff across the firm told to expect less generous pay rises.

The redundancy programme has now been expanded to include several of the firm’s business lines, with the outlook for areas such as transactions and deal advisory set to remain difficult into 2024.

EY’s UK partners were told in April to prepare for cost-cutting measures following the collapse of Project Everest, a plan to split the firm’s audit and consulting divisions globally. As part of the new redundancy consultations, at least 40 jobs are set to be lost at EY-Parthenon, with about 55 cut at EY Riverview Law, according to people familiar with the matter.

The firm’s UK redundancies are less severe compared with those at its US business, which announced earlier this year that it would axe 3,000 roles, or 5 per cent of its overall workforce. EY employs about 21,000 people in the UK.

EY’s UK partners took home an average of £761,000 for the firm’s most recent financial year, a 5 per cent drop on the previous 12 months.

The firm said: “We continually assess the resourcing needs of our business and, in some parts of the organisation, we are consulting on proposals to align current resourcing requirements with market demand. We will always seek to redeploy our people to other parts of the business where possible.”

EY acquired Riverview as part of efforts to expand the firm’s legal managed services practice.

At the time, Cornelius Grossmann, then the firm’s global law leader, said: “We recognise the expertise that Riverview Law has in this growing market area, which when married with the global EY footprint and legal understanding will help drive significant opportunities for EY clients.”