Key Takeaways
- PwC is a Big Four accounting firm, along with KPMG, Deloitte and EY.
- Mohamed Kande, global chairman of PwC, said in a new interview that PwC is looking to hire hundreds of engineers, but can’t find them.
- PwC cut more than 5,600 roles across its worldwide operations last year, bringing its total headcount below 365,000.
PwC wants to hire tech talent — but can’t find the right people.
“Across the PwC network, we are looking for hundreds and hundreds of engineers,” Mohamed Kande, global chairman of PwC, told the BBC in an interview last week. “We just cannot find them.”
The firm is pivoting away from hiring generalists and looking more to hire specialists, especially in technology. PwC has been looking for new talent to add to its numbers with a combination of hiring and upskilling.
Related: A Big 4 Firm Is Cutting Back on Entry-Level Hiring, According to a Leaked Slideshow
PwC isn’t the only firm striving to add tech talent. EY, for example, has hired 61,000 technologists since 2023, per Business Insider. EY had a total workforce of just under 400,000 employees at the end of 2024.
Kande said in his BBC interview that PwC’s future business strategy will place advising clients on AI implementation as a central focus. He emphasized that as the market and technology landscape rapidly shift, companies seek guidance on deploying AI tools as well as transforming their operations and workforce to effectively harness AI.
Kande said he didn’t know if PwC would continue to hire recent graduates in the same numbers. “It will be a different set of people,” he told the BBC. “But we are going to make sure we have the right skill set for the right jobs.”
A leaked internal presentation from PwC in August showed that the U.S. division of the company planned to cut graduate hiring by over 30% over the next three years, due in part to “transformation efforts” and “the impact of AI.”
Related: ‘Completely Blindsided’: Accounting Giant PwC Is Laying Off 1,500 U.S. Workers. Here’s Why.
PwC is a Big Four accounting firm, along with EY, KPMG and Deloitte. These are the four biggest professional services companies in the world by revenue, providing services like auditing, tax and consulting to businesses around the world.
PwC reported last month that for the fiscal year ending June 30, the firm grew its global revenue 2.7% to $56.9 billion. In comparison, Deloitte reported revenue growth of 4.9% to $70.5 billion, while EY reported growth of 4% to $53.2 billion. PwC called its results “a solid performance in a challenging economic climate.”
In 2021, PwC set the ambitious goal of hiring 100,000 people over the course of five years — but Kande said it would no longer be possible to meet that goal due to AI. In fact, PwC cut more than 5,600 roles across its worldwide operations last year, bringing its total headcount below 365,000.
“When we made the plans to hire that many people, the world looked very, very different,” he told the BBC. “Now we have artificial intelligence.”
Related: Is Workplace Trust Dead? A ‘Big Four’ Firm Will Soon Use Location Data to Track Employees
Key Takeaways
- PwC is a Big Four accounting firm, along with KPMG, Deloitte and EY.
- Mohamed Kande, global chairman of PwC, said in a new interview that PwC is looking to hire hundreds of engineers, but can’t find them.
- PwC cut more than 5,600 roles across its worldwide operations last year, bringing its total headcount below 365,000.
PwC wants to hire tech talent — but can’t find the right people.
“Across the PwC network, we are looking for hundreds and hundreds of engineers,” Mohamed Kande, global chairman of PwC, told the BBC in an interview last week. “We just cannot find them.”
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