NEW YORK: McKinsey & Co is beginning to eliminate roughly 360 jobs as the consulting giant deals with a slowdown in demand for its services.

The reductions are global and will affect employees across a variety of divisions including design, data engineering, cloud and software, according to people familiar with the matter.

The cuts are expected to impact about 3% of the 12,000 staffers who are considered specialists or have technical expertise that work alongside the firm’s traditional consultants, one of the people said, asking not to be identified discussing personnel information.

“We invest to grow capabilities that match our clients’ priorities, and adjust the size of a small number of others as appropriate,” a McKinsey spokesperson said in an emailed statement.

“As part of this process, some roles will be eliminated within this small number of capabilities.”

Traditional consultants won’t be affected by the dismissals, the person familiar with the matter said. McKinsey has more than 45,000 staffers in 130 cities around the world, according to its website.

The firm, which has also been battling fierce political backlash in the United States for its work in Saudi Arabia and China, has advised a wide range of organisations from the US Pentagon to China’s Ping An Insurance (Group) Co.

After the boom times of the pandemic spurred hiring sprees across the consulting industry, firms including Ernst & Young and PricewaterhouseCoopers have more recently had to turn to job cuts as a growing number of clients shelve longer-term investments.

Last month, Accenture Plc shares tumbled after the company warned it’s seen financial-services customers pull back their spending on its software.

McKinsey generated a record US$16bil in revenue last year. Still, the firm has warned about 3,000 of its consultants that their performance was unsatisfactory and will need to improve.

 - Bloomberg