The worldwide consulting company has a workforce of more than 6,500 individuals throughout Ireland.
Accenture has felt the impact of the global economic downturn, as evidenced by their decision to lower their annual revenue and profit forecasts and announce a workforce reduction of 2.5%. The majority of the 19,000 positions that will be eliminated are in the company’s non-billable corporate functions. In Ireland, the organisation employs over 6,500 people and had previously pledged to create 500 new jobs in the next three years, mainly in Cork and Munster.
The tech industry has been heavily affected by high inflation and rising interest rates, resulting in hundreds of thousands of layoffs. Cognizant Technology Solutions, one of Accenture’s rivals, reported weak bookings in 2022 and forecasted lower than expected quarterly revenue. IBM Corp and India’s Tata Consultancy have also noticed a drop in client spending, blamed in part on the Ukraine war.
Accenture has adjusted their growth expectations for the year, now expecting annual revenue growth to be between 8% and 10% and earnings per share in the range of €9.87 to €10.17. CEO Julie Sweet noted that companies are focused on ‘compressed transformations’, or becoming leaner in the current financial climate. A survey of 1,000 IT decision-makers showed that they plan to reduce their 2023 budget growth to 3.4%, down from the 5.6% increase seen in October 2022.
Erik Bradley, chief engagement strategist at Enterprise Technology Research, commented that the data indicates a ‘very difficult environment ahead for consulting firms’.
