Accenture to cut 400 jobs from its Irish workforce 

The global consultancy firm employs over 6,500 people across Ireland

Since late last year, the tech sector has laid off hundreds of thousands of employees due to a demand downturn caused by high inflation and rising interest rates.

Accenture said it will cut 400 jobs from its workforce in Ireland as part of a plan to cut 19,000 jobs worldwide.

The global consultancy firm employs over 6,500 employees across Ireland and in 2021, announced plans to create 500 new jobs in the next three years, the majority of which would be based in Cork and the wider Munster area.

In a statement to the Irish Examiner an Accenture spokesperson said: “After a careful review of our business operations, we can confirm that we are going into collective employee consultation for a proposed redundancy programme that is anticipated to affect approximately 400 of our people in Ireland.”

The company has informed the Department of Enterprise and Minister Simon Coveney of its plans for collective redundancy. 

Globally, around 19,000 of the company’s global staff will be cut, Accenture announced earlier today, news that sent company shares to increase by almost 8%.

So far, Ireland’s shrinking tech sector has led to over 2,300 job cuts in Ireland in recent months, according to the Central Bank of Ireland.

With high inflation continuing to curb demand, Accenture lowered its annual revenue and profit forecast, with the company now expecting annual revenue growth to be between 8% and 10%, compared with its previous projection of an 8% to 11% increase.

Rival Cognizant Technology Solutions last month pointed to "muted" growth in bookings, or the deals IT services firms have in the pipeline, in 2022 and forecast quarterly revenue below expectations.

IBM Corp and India's top IT services firm Tata Consultancy have also flagged weakness in Europe, where the Ukraine war has affected client spending.

"Companies remain focused on executing compressed transformations," Chief Executive Julie Sweet said in a post-earnings call referring to how businesses were trying to become leaner in the turbulent economy.

Additional reporting from Reuters