KPMG and E&Y in staff recruitment freeze
Date: 18-09-2008
Source: Accountancy Age
Big Four firms KPMG and Ernst & Young have said staff recruitment freezes are in place, with both continuing only to recruit in senior or technical roles. A spokesman for KPMG said it was being affected by the current business climate and staffing was one such casualty of this. ‘We're not taking on additional people. We're not expanding when it comes to head count. We've been hiring up until recently,' he said. The spokesman said the firm's recruiting of 1,000 graduates will in any case go ahead as planned this week.
The freeze follows a string of redundancies at KPMG, including approximately 70 in corporate finance and transaction serviceswhich the spokesman said was purely a reflection of the markets in merger and acquisition activity. ‘Corporate activity in general has slowed down significantly. Other firms are reflected by the same market conditions. We're not unique or immune,' he said.
E&Y said it was continuing to recruit technical people but had frozen recruitment for support roles. Other firms insisted they had no plans to follow suit. Brian Bannister, director of communications at PwC, said there was no recruitment freeze in place. The likelihood of a redundancy program being adopted wasn't high either. ‘At least, not in the short term,' he said.
Deloitte also said it had no recruitment freeze, and despite recent reports about the US office making 800 redundancies, the UK is yet to record any such activity.
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