For all B4 firms, there's been discussion of reduced benefits, layoffs etc. what is the cause of this? Seems surprising given record stock market historically low unemployment. All election related?

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It's not election related. They laid off a bunch of people in the 2008 downturn. Then they were short staffed and over hired in the following years which has resulted in excess staff and seniors. Pair that with the reduction of work due to poor market performance in certain areas and offshoring of low risk typical staff 1 work to India and you have layoffs.

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One thing I see with the accounting firms is that they usually are able to signal the end of the good times first. Usually a reduction in consulting work and off the wall projects. When those are stopping it usually means that companies are slowly cutting costs of weird projects that they usually only try when things are going really well and growth is robust

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^shit that sounds like an OAR explanation

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One word.... INDIA.

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Obama didn't actually improve the economy like people think. Market is incredibly inflated due to yellen and interest rates. Gonna be in for a massive downswing soon

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*raises hand sheepishly*

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Watch the THE BIG SHORT for a remimder.

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Open your eyes... we are at the top of a bubble. They are just planning for the inevitable.

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AS 1, nailed it.

Does anyone believe for a second that the group of people with the foresight to come up with "vision 2020" all of the sudden is accurately predicting a bear market and proactively taking action?

And EY 2 is right, apparently we saw the worst recession since the Great Depression in roughly 2008, and a lot of firms cut a hell of a lot of costs. What isn't really advertised, tho, is that after reporting revenue growth of nearly 15% in 2008, big 4 revenues took a small~6% step back in 2009, but were back growing by 3% in 2010 and haven't looked back since. Fortunately for us, companies can't just not buy audits in bad years, so while the rest of the economy was going to hell, the big 4, got off relatively easy.

The reason firms are laying people off and cutting back on benefits is, simply, because they can. They've made huge investments in technology and off-shore programs in the past few years and can do more work with less people now.

Every person they show the door is just another increase in their profit share, so, like, can you really blame them?

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That's the point, this growth rate is not sustainable...no firm wants to be left with excess capacity when it's too late.This is a forecast of what's to come, they could all be wrong and turn around and pay a premium to hire back...seen that before.

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^ I'm laughing at all these stock market explanations / bubbles. Why hire staff at 50-60k in theUS. Why keep SM at 100k + ? When you can hire an army in India?

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It took me less than a year to stop caring

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@Tax Accountant 1 we are definitely exempt employees and the big 4 is under no requirement to pay us overtime. I'm not sure where you're getting your information.

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For all those on this thread suggesting that low interest rates are coursing an artificially high stock market - many economists who study the market and virtually all money managers agree that interest rates have little to no impact on the stock market in the long run and merely cause noise in the market in the short term. I agree that the market growth is only sustainable for so long, but to suggest the firms are forecasting this and taking proactive action is absurd. I have heard EY lost several large clients, specifically in its SE offices, due to a variety of reasons. This coupled with massive campus hiring during the past 3 years is causing the layoffs. Let's not point blame at political or economic factors.

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Lots of blanket statements. What specialty areas in Big4 and which regions talk about layoffs?!

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Nope I can't blame them but the means never justify the ends. Sooner or later karma will come back with a vengeance. It's just a matter of time.... all in all it makes me want to open my own firm and not deal with it anymore. I have to ask myself daily why do I care so much, or why am I stressing out for what or for whom? When the company could care less about me as an employee.... that is why top talent when laid off or fired doesn't mind leaving because they are overworked, undervalued, and underpaid... people get to a point where they stop caring...

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Guess you don't remember what the economy was like in 2008.lmbo

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^who doesn't remember?

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EY was planning to win all these big clients, but it didn't pan out. Or it's like the Anthem/Cigna merger that is never going to come to fruition at this rate that they were counting on.

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Pwc1 your probably young watch the movie. Honestly a great movie.

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