KPMG cuts U.S. auditor staff by 4% to combat low turnover

KPMG LLP announced on Monday that it was cutting its U.S. audit staff by about 330 positions, accounting for nearly 4% of its nearly 9,000 audit staff. A source familiar with the company’s strategy said the decision addresses historically low employee turnover, a factor affecting staffing levels, Bloomberg reported.

Livemint was unable to independently verify the development of this news.

The layoffs come as KPMG restructures its workforce to adapt to current market demands. “These actions reflect our continued focus on aligning the size, structure and skills of our workforce with the market while addressing continued low levels of attrition,” the company explained in a statement.

KPMG’s audit business has grown despite recent job cuts. In 2023, the segment generated revenue of $3.7 billion, underscoring its importance within a broader service offering of corporate accounting, tax and consulting. The wave of layoffs comes just a year after the firm laid off 2,700 employees in the United States in response to a slowdown in demand for its deal advisory services that was affecting several of the world’s Big Four firms.

These staffing changes come as other companies in the Big Four face similar challenges. PwC LLP, for example, cut 1,800 positions in its U.S. assurance, tax and advisory services unit in September.

Global revenue growth has been affected at the Big Four, including Deloitte, Ernst & Young and PricewaterhouseCoopers, all of which reported slowing financial results earlier this fall. KPMG will release its network-wide data in December.

Amid these shifts, KPMG CEO Paul Knopp recently urged reforms to CPA licensure standards, citing a shrinking talent pipeline for the profession. While Knopp said there are no immediate hiring issues at KPMG, he expressed concern about the impact of a shrinking CPA workforce on corporate accounting teams and smaller firms.