PwC announces major layoff in 15 years, will ax 1,800 jobs from US division ‘to remain competitive’

PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) is set to ax approximately 1,800 jobs in the United States region in its first major round of layoffs announced since 2009. The job cuts, which will impact about 2.5 percent of its US workforce, are spread across roles from associates to managing directors and include verticals like business services, audit and tax.

The move comes amid a slowdown in demand for some of its advisory businesses, according to a Wall Street Journal report. PwC US leader Paul Griggs announced the restructuring and layoffs to staff in a memo stating that the firm is “positioning our firm for the future, creating capacity to invest, and anticipating and reacting to the market opportunities of today and tomorrow,” the report added .

PwC plans to restructure its products and technology teams to further embed them in individual business lines and streamline processes in business services, Griggs said.

Tim Grady, PwC’s US chief operating officer (COO), said, “To remain competitive and position our business for the future, we are continuing to transform areas of our firm and are aligning our workforce to better support our strategy,” as per the WSJ report.

This development marks a significant shift for PwC, which had avoided layoffs in the US since 2009, unlike its peers EY, KPMG and Deloitte laying off thousands of workers during the time.

China troubles

The audit giant, which is a member of the Big Four, is also grappling with its mounting troubles in China after it lost a major client following the exit of Country Garden Holdings. The Chinese property developer said that PwC has agreed to resign as its auditor.

PwC is under regulatory scanner after China’s securities regulator in March said Evergrande had inflated its revenues by almost $80 billion in the two years before the developer defaulted on its debts in 2021, despite PwC’s China unit giving the firm’s accounts a thumbs up.

Chinese regulators are likely to order suspension of business for a big part of PricewaterhouseCoopers’s (PwC) auditing unit in mainland China for six months, as part of punishment for its work on troubled property developer Evergrande.

The business ban is expected to be imposed on PwC Zhong Tian LLP, the registered accounting entity and the main onshore arm of PwC in China, the report added.

Bank of China (BOC), China Life Insurance, PICC, China Taiping Insurance and China Cinda Asset Management, are now among the Chinese companies that have axed PwC as auditor this year, following a government ‘guidance’.