Consolidation and Cuts: KPMG to Slash 200 Corporate Services Roles in the UK
The consolidation wave across professional services continues to hit payrolls. KPMG is preparing to eliminate roughly 10% of its workforce within its UK group corporate services division, putting an estimated 200 jobs at risk.
The planned redundancies will focus primarily on back-office and central support operations, including Human Resources (HR), corporate affairs, marketing, technology infrastructure, and procurement.
Post-Merger Restructuring and Offshoring
This staff contraction follows the legal integration of KPMG’s UK and Swiss businesses. Partners from both member firms voted overwhelmingly to merge the entities, a combined structure that went live in October 2024.
The accounting giant clarified that the job cuts are aimed at streamlining operations and capitalizing on digital systems rather than reflecting a drop in overall firm performance.
“As we continue to integrate our UK and Swiss businesses to deliver on our group strategy and drive growth, we are looking at the shape of our operating model,” a KPMG UK spokesperson stated. “This includes launching proposals to reduce roles in our central services by 10% to avoid duplication, make the most of our technology investments and to expand our offshore delivery.”
Compounding Cuts Across the Audit Giant
These central operations cuts follow targeted downsizings inside KPMG’s front-office UK divisions earlier this year.
Over 500 positions were previously eliminated from its audit division—primarily impacting 440 assistant manager posts—while an additional 120 roles were stripped from its core advisory unit. In total, those restructuring moves hit roughly 6% of the division’s 7,100-strong regional workforce.
At the time, the firm attributed the front-line audit cuts to unusually low attrition rates and stagnating market conditions, which forced management to actively “right-size” professional teams rather than relying on natural staff turnover to manage headcount.
A Industry-Wide Big Four Retreat
KPMG’s strategy is far from unique. The entire “Big Four” consulting network is currently managing a structural slowdown in professional services fees and adjusting to automated technological workflows.
PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) has recently prepared workforce reduction plans inside its own UK audit division, while Deloitte faced scrutiny following decisions to slash nearly 200 accounting roles across its regional UK audit branch. For corporate professionals across accounting, tech, and HR, the hiring climate in professional services remains distinctly defensive.
Source: Originally reported by International Accounting Bulletin via Yahoo Finance.