Well we knew layoffs were coming to Deloitte sooner or later, just didn’t think it would be this much sooner.
Saw this discussion on r/deloitte yesterday:
A + C = Advisory and Consulting. Damn you, Big 4 staff and your esoteric acronyms.
And there’s this comment thread:
While we were doing some digging to confirm this, Wall Street Journal went ahead and confirmed because they’re better and faster at their jobs than we are. They even confirmed what the above comment thread said about people not having the balls to leave on their own accord:
Deloitte is cutting U.S. workers in its consulting business after the federal government demanded it find ways to shrink the cost of government projects it is working on.
The Big Four accounting firm didn’t specify how many employees would be targeted. “Modest personnel actions” would be taken in the coming weeks based on government clients’ evolving needs, the company said.
Deloitte also said voluntary employee turnover had slowed down. Since more consultants had stayed in their jobs in recent months, that contributed to the need to reduce its workforce, according to a U.S. spokesman. Overall demand for Deloitte’s advisory services remains strong, he added.
Yeah they always say that last part. That’s a big reason why firms do sneaky silent layoffs (even when it’s obvious to those left behind that their colleagues are being raptured by the God of layoffs), because an RIF like this following headlines about Deloitte’s business getting especially hammered by DOGE can only mean one thing: business is bad.
Our instinct is to give Deloitte a little bit of credit for not going the silent layoffs route but it seems like they aren’t being transparent out of consideration for their staff, rather they have no choice but to be honest about it given the scale of layoffs and the news coverage of their issues with the Trump administration. Not to mention last year’s global revenue and growth wasn’t exactly spectacular.
The last time we covered Deloitte reducing its force: Layoff Watch ’24: Deloitte’s Busy Scaring People with Business Update Meetings.
As the WSJ coverage said, numbers are unknown at this time. We suspect a round of layoffs won’t be limited to consulting, they’re going to get negative headlines anyway so might as well cut some fat off other areas while they’re at it. You know what would be really evil? Using this as an opportunity to cut extra fat with the intention of replacing departed staff with offshore talent.
Speaking of… HEY, what happened to that malarkey they were yapping about with the super fancy AI they were going to use to avoid layoffs? Yeah, we called it. Moving people from less in-demand areas to busier areas only works if you have busier areas that can’t be staffed by that unlimited army of Indians the firm has at USI.
Our condolences to anyone getting cut who doesn’t want to be. Trust us when we say you’ll be better off for it in the long run.
If you have more info or would like to share your thoughts, reach out anonymously via email or text. Hang in there, everybody.
