McKinsey layoffs: Consulting giant to cut 2,000 jobs after mass hiring

McKinsey was founded almost 100 years ago in Chicago.

McKinsey is planning to cut 2,000 jobs in one of the global consulting giant’s biggest layoffs, Bloomberg News reported. The job cuts will happen as the frim seeks to centralise its support services for its consultants in a cost-cutting bid after having recruited heavily in recent years.

Citing anonymous sources, Bloomberg said the number of employees affected could still change, and are expected to primarily target administrative staff who do not interact directly with clients. McKinsey & Company had a record revenue of $15 billion in 2021, and exceeded that figure in 2022, according to a Bloomberg source.

The news of the downsizing comes after McKinsey, which was founded nearly 100 years ago in Chicago, increased its headcount from 28,000 to 45,000 employees over the past five years.

The layoffs come two years after McKinsey's approximately 650 senior partners chose Bob Sternfels to replace Kevin Sneader at the helm of the company.

Top accounting firm KPMG too had announced last week that it will lay off 2% of its workforce – or about 700 employees – in the United States.

Mass layoffs began in 2022 with several IT giants announcing workforce reductions. Tens of thousands of people across the world have lost their jobs in the past few months as global technology giants are on a layoff spree globally.

Among the biggest companies that slashed jobs last year and this were Meta, Twitter, Amazon and Google. Google, Amazon, Microsoft, Meta and Twitter are among companies that have sacked employees recently or frozen hiring in the face of sluggish consumer spending, higher interest rates and surging inflation worldwide.