Accenture to cut 1000 jobs

ACCENTURE LTD , the world's largest consulting company, said yesterday it would slash about 1,000 jobs, or slightly more than 1% of its workforce, as the consulting industry faced a slump in demand amid the lingering economic downturn.

Bermuda-registered Accenture is a management and technology services company that has been under pressure because large corporations have reduced spending on information technology projects to a trickle.

In an industry that usually has a high turnover, Accenture also has one of its lowest rates of attrition, or the number of staff leaving voluntarily, at 7 percent, spokeswoman Roxanne Taylor said.

Shares of Accenture were off more than 3% in midday trading, down 61 cents to $17.29 on the New York Stock Exchange.

With a workforce of 75,000 employees worldwide, the company would cut consulting positions over the next few months, mainly in management, Ms Taylor said.

The reductions would be primarily in the US, Britain and Australia, she said.

"The reductions are part of an ongoing effort to ensure we have the right balance of capabilities to execute our strategies," she said.

She stressed that the job cuts were not a broad overhaul of the company's staff, and that Accenture would add 8000 employees at the end of its fiscal 2003 year, which starts on September 1, 2002, partly because the company expected growth in outsourcing.

Accenture is due to report earnings on Friday and analysts expect it to post profits, on average, that are largely flat from a year ago.