Dive Brief:
- Accenture plans to eliminate 19,000 jobs over the next 18 months as part of a cost-cutting strategy at the professional services company according to a quarterly filing Thursday.
- Half of those cuts are expected to impact workers in "non-billable corporate functions," the company said. The company plans to spend $1.5 billion in personnel and office consolidation costs related to the cuts in its 2023 and 2024 fiscal years. Accenture did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
- The company will take steps to lower costs in the coming fiscal year and beyond "while continuing to invest in our business and our people to capture the significant growth opportunities ahead," Accenture CEO Julie Sweet said in a press release.
Dive Insight:
The IT sector is decelerating amid a broader economic pullback, and companies are looking for ways to reduce costs in the face of uncertainty.
The lull in spending is beginning to show in financial reports for Accenture, a provider of consulting and professional services. Operating income reached $1.9 billion in the second quarter of its fiscal year, for the period ending Feb. 28, down 6% from $2.1 billion year over year.
Accenture also revised its revenue growth projections for this fiscal year: it now expects revenues to grow between 8% and 10% in local currency, down slightly from the previous range of 8% to 11%. The company operates in 120 countries and employs more than 738,000 people.
Analyst firms have flagged 2023 as a year of slower growth for the IT sector overall. Gartner expects global IT spending to grow 2.4% this year, down from a previously forecasted 5.1% bump.
IT consulting spending is expected to outpace the overall IT growth rate, increasing 6.7% year-over-year according to Gartner projections.
As spending has cooled, technology companies have let go of more than 150,000 workers this year, according to layoffs tracking site Layoffs.fyi.
Despite the job cuts, experts say the demand for IT talent is set to continue as more companies depend on digital services and products to operate efficiently.