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Over the past two years, these professional services giants, who collectively employ around 100,000 people in the UK, have cut hundreds of jobs.

With the growing reliance on AI to perform many entry-level administrative tasks, hundreds fewer graduates and school leavers will be recruited compared to 2023, The Telegraph reports.

KPMG has implemented the most significant cuts, slashing its recruitment scheme by 29% from 1,399 in 2023 to 942 last year, with around 1,000 expected hires this year. Deloitte followed suit with an 18% reduction in its graduate intake, from 1,700 to 1,400, and anticipates flat recruitment this year. EY trimmed its graduate hiring by 11% (1,800 to 1,600), while PwC cut its entry-level scheme by 6% (1,600 to 1,500).

Data from job board Indeed has revealed a 44% decrease in UK accountancy graduate job adverts this year compared to 2023, notably higher than the 33% decline for all graduate jobs and a 20% drop in general job listings.

Beyond graduate roles, executive search firm Patrick Morgan indicates that the Big Four have significantly reduced their overall UK headcounts since the emergence of ChatGPT in November 2022. So far in 2025, KPMG and PwC have both seen a 4% reduction in their total UK headcounts. Deloitte’s UK workforce is down by 2% since last year, and EY’s by 1%.

Even sharper cuts were made in 2024, following a post-Covid boom in the consulting industry that led to significant workforce expansion. KPMG reduced its UK workforce by 7% in 2024, PwC by 5%, Deloitte by 5%, and EY by 3%.

The job cuts are part of a broader strategy to reduce costs, driven by the adoption of AI and the shifting of work to countries with lower labour costs, such as Malaysia, the Philippines, and India.

While Deloitte, PwC, and EY have experienced a decrease in partner payouts due to the slump, KPMG has managed to buck this trend by implementing aggressive cost-cutting measures. All four firms have also significantly expanded their operations in Malaysia and India in 2022 and 2023, with EY and PwC also expanding in the Philippines during the same period.

Despite the cuts, EY and KPMG spokespersons affirmed their continued investment in talent, highlighting ongoing recruitment for their graduate, school leaver, and apprenticeship programmes.

EY said: “We are continuing to invest in talent across the UK and are actively hiring across all our graduate, school leaver and internship programmes.”

KPMG said: “Investing in talent is important to us. We recruit around 1,000 graduates and apprentices a year.”

PwC and Deloitte declined to comment.