Waning global economy: Accenture to slash down some 19k jobs

Dublin: Issuing more signs of a waning global economic situation, Accenture Plc informed on Thursday it is slashing down around 19,000 jobs. The Irish-American IT services company has also lowered its annual revenue and profit projections, Reuters reported.

The company cut its annual revenue growth and profit forecasts, worrying that recession-wary enterprises might cut technology budgets, Reuters says.

The company said in a statement that streamlining operations will end up in the said job cuts in the next 18 months. More than half of the laying off would-be employees in “non-billable corporate functions”, Times of India (TOI) reported, citing the company’s statement. However, the announcement has ended its shares up more than 4 per cent.

CEO of Accenture, Julie Sweet, said that the company is taking steps to lower its costs in the fiscal year 2024 and beyond. But it will continue investing in its business and its people “to capture the significant growth opportunities ahead," TOI quoted from the statement.

According to its current expectations, annual revenue growth would range around 8% to 10% in local currency, while it was 8% to 11% earlier.

The series of laying off continues in tech companies, including majors like Microsoft, Amazon, Twitter and Meta.

Accenture made the announcement days after Amazon announced another job cut of 9,000 employees in the coming weeks. The said cut will mostly be in the E-commerce giant’s AWS, advertising and Twitch. Amazon has already laid off around 18,000 employees so far, TOI reported.