Services provider Accenture to lay off 19,000 employees

By Ovunc Kutlu

ISTANBUL (AA) - Irish-American professional services company Accenture said Thursday that it is planning to lay off 19,000 employees in the next one and a half years.

"We initiated actions to streamline our operations and transform our non-billable corporate functions to reduce costs," the company said in a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

"Over the next 18 months, these actions are expected to result in the departure of approximately 19,000 people (or 2.5% of our current workforce)," it wrote.

The firm, which provides professional IT and other services and is based in Dublin, said major global economic issues are the root of the problem, fueled by high inflation.

"Our results of operations are affected by economic conditions, including macroeconomic conditions, the overall inflationary environment and levels of business confidence," said the filing.

"There continues to be significant economic and geopolitical uncertainty in many markets around the world, which has impacted and may continue to impact our business, particularly with regard to wage inflation and volatility in foreign currency exchange rates," it added.

More than a dozen companies in the tech industry have been cutting jobs as the sector is struggling with lower income, falling ad revenue and fears of a recession.

Amazon, Yahoo, Disney, Affirm, Zoom, Dell, IBM, Microsoft, Salesforce, PayPal and Google's parent, Alphabet, have been laying off workers by the thousands in past months.

Accenture has 738,000 employees in total, according to the most recent figures.