Mckinsey to lay off hundreds as consultancy work dries up

MCKINSEY is planning to lay off hundreds as the consulting giant grapples with weaker demand for its services.

The management consultancy company is preparing to make 360 redundancies across design, data engineering, cloud and software divisions.

Mckinsey’s layoffs will affect about 3pc of 12,000 workers across the business’s global offices who are considered as specialists or as having technical expertise. The job cuts will not affect the firm’s traditional consultant roles, Bloomberg first reported.

A Mckinsey spokesman said: “We invest to grow capabilities that match our clients’ priorities and adjust the size of a small number of others as appropriate. As part of this process, some roles will be eliminated within this small number of capabilities. We will ensure departing colleagues receive support.”

It comes as Mckinsey faces pressure to maintain profits as demand for services as cash-strapped clients reduce spending on projects.

It has resulted in consulting firms becoming overstaffed as fewer employees choose to leave voluntarily. The US business employs 45,000 people in 65 countries, a workforce that has ballooned 60pc from 28,000 in 2018.

Recent efforts to trim its headcount include a voluntary notice period scheme targeting consultants across Mckinsey’s UK and US offices.

Under the terms of the scheme, UK employees can spend nine months looking for new jobs while receiving full pay. It follows sweeping job losses under one of the largest restructurings in Mckinsey’s 98-year history.

The overhaul announced last year eliminated 1,400 jobs in back-office and support functions, including human resources, communications and IT.

The layoffs reportedly attracted criticism from among the company’s 750 senior partners.

Mckinsey, which recorded $16bn (£13bn) of revenue last year, is often called on by companies and governments that need help in dealing with their toughest problems.

However, the business has since warned 3,000 consultants that their performance is unsatisfactory and needs to improve. Such staff typically have three months to improve before being counselled to leave the business.