CONSULTING FIRM ACCENTURE has revealed it is axing around 19,000 jobs across its worldwide workforce over the next 18 months.

The New York-listed group said the cuts – about 2.5% of its 738,000-strong employee base – will largely affect its corporate support teams rather than client-facing staff, with more than half going across departments such as human resources, IT, finance and marketing.

An Accenture spokesperson told The Journal that around 400 employees Ireland would be made redundant: “After a careful review of our business operations, we can confirm that we are going into collective employee consultation for a proposed redundancy programme that is anticipated to affect approximately 400 of our people in Ireland.”

The company employs over 6,500 people in Ireland, in Dublin and Cork.

It is also closing offices globally as part of the plans to save around $1.5 billion US dollars (€1.375 billion), of which around $800 million (€733 million) will be delivered this year and the remainder in 2024.

The group said: “While we continue to hire, especially to support our strategic growth priorities, during the second quarter of fiscal 2023 we initiated actions to streamline our operations and transform our non-billable corporate functions to reduce costs.”

The job losses adds to a wider cull across the corporate and technology sectors, with Amazon, Facebook owner Meta, and Just Eat recently announcing more hefty cuts.

The latest round of cuts come after the group reported a 5% rise in quarterly revenue and better-than-expected earnings.