Accenture has announced to lay off 19,000 employees which constitute 2.5 per cent of its workforce. The IT giant expects its annual revenue growth projection to 8-10 per cent from its previous forecast of 8-11 per cent increase. Apart from this, they have also cut down its profit forecasts and annual revenue. Global economic slowdown has led many major tech companies around the world to announce mass layoffs.
As per the company, more than half of the layoffs will impact its staff at non-billable corporate functions. Following the announcement, the shares of the IT firm jumped more than 4 per cent before the stock market closed. Accenture expects its earnings per share to be in the range of $10.84 to $11.06 as opposed to its previous range of $11.20 to $11.52.
In order to grow in future, the company will keep on investing in its business and its employees said Julie Sweet, Accenture’s chief executive officer (CEO) and chair, in a statement. “We are also taking steps to lower our costs in the fiscal year 2024 and beyond while continuing to invest in our business and our people to capture the significant growth opportunities ahead,” it said.
Since late 2022, many big tech giants including Google, Meta, Amazon, and Microsoft also handed pink slips to hundreds of its employees as a measure to cut costs. The reasons cited vary from over hiring done during the pandemic to the ongoing inflation and economic slowdown. On Monday, Amazon also decided to let go of 9,000 employees across its cloud services, advertising and Twitch verticals. Earlier this month, Facebook’s parent company Meta had also announced to sack its 10,000 employees in second round of the layoffs.
As a cost cutting measure, entertainment behemoth Disney has also given directions to its managers to provide a list of employees who will be sacked in the coming weeks. Recently, Indeed, a job search company, also decided to trim roughly 15 per cent workforce at Indeed and Indeed Flex.