PricewaterhouseCoopers is laying off 1,500 employees, or about 2% of its U.S. workforce of approximately 75,000 employees.

The layoffs come on the heels of another round of layoffs last September, when PwC cut 1,800 jobs. Other Big Four firms have also made plans for layoffs, including Deloitte, which is facing cutbacks in its advisory business after the Trump administration announced it was canceling or modifying over 100 federal consulting contracts.

“We are positioned for the future, to meet the needs of our clients as they evolve and to lead in a fast-changing marketplace,” said a PwC spokesperson. “This was a difficult decision, and we made it with care, thoughtfulness, and a deep awareness of its impact on our people, appreciating that historically low levels of attrition over consecutive years have made it necessary to take this step. We will continue to invest in the development of our people, deliver an exceptional client experience, and maintain the high standards of quality that define PwC and the outcomes we deliver.” 

Most of the layoffs are in the audit and tax practices, according to the Financial Times, with some job cuts in the products and technology group, where the layoffs last fall also affected. The firm is also reducing its campus hiring.

The New York-based firm reorganized last April under its senior partner, Paul Griggs, who realigned its organizational structure across three lines of service — Assurance, Tax and Advisory — starting last July, only about three years after PwC restructured into two sides: Trust Solutions and Consulting Solutions. This is now the second round of cutbacks under Griggs. 

PwC firms in the U.K., Australia and Canada also cut jobs in 2023 and 2024, partly due to the high interest rate environment that has hampered the consulting business and a tax scandal in Australia that involved the sharing of a confidential government document with clients.

The Public Company Accounting Oversight Board has agreed to a statement of protocol with the Auditing Oversight Authority of the Slovak Republic as the PCAOB comes under threat of being folded into the Securities and Exchange Commission.

The PCAOB announced the bilateral arrangement Tuesday and said it went into effect May 5. The pact will offer a framework for facilitating regulatory cooperation in supervising the oversight of auditors and public accounting firms. 

“Today’s agreement is just the latest successful example of the PCAOB working around the globe to protect investors in U.S. markets,” said PCAOB chair Erica Williams in a statement Tuesday.

Last week, the House Financial Services Committee passed legislation transferring the PCAOB’s responsibilities to the SEC. Williams defended the role of the PCAOB in an interview the next day at an accounting conference at Baruch College in New York, and pointed out that the PCAOB has signed agreements with audit regulators in over 50 jurisdictions around the world, including a hard-fought one with China after passage of the Holding Foreign Companies Accountable Act, and those agreements aren’t necessarily transferable to the SEC.

“I don’t know if they’d be able to renegotiate it, but in order to be able to inspect and investigate completely there, as required by the HFCAA, they would need to have a new statement of protocol,” Williams said. 

Last week, during a meeting of the PCAOB’s Investor Advisory Group, Williams further explained what was involved in reaching such agreements.

“Local laws in many of those countries require cooperative agreements that the PCAOB has secured over years of negotiation to ensure we have the access necessary to inspect and investigate completely,” she said.

“None of the agreements contain provisions that would allow the PCAOB’s privileges and responsibilities under the agreements to be transferred to the SEC,” Williams added. “They would have to be renegotiated before inspections could be conducted, which could take years.”

Nearly three-quarters (72%) of Master of Accounting programs in the U.S. reported increased application levels in 2024, according to a study by the Graduate Management Admission Council.

The GMAC surveyed 297 business schools, representing 1,090 programs, for its latest report on trends in graduate business school programs.

This figure represents a five-year peak in applications and is up from 43% of programs in 2023. The data found that 2% of Master of Accounting programs reported that application levels were flat, and 26% reported declined applications. 

“The resurgence in applicant interest in Master of Accounting programs is another encouraging sign for the accounting profession’s workforce development efforts,” Susan Coffey, CEO of public accounting for the Association of International CPAs, said in a statement. “In today’s competitive talent landscape, efforts to attract new entrants to accounting remain a top priority.”

In contrast, only 55% of Master of Finance programs reported increases. 

“Stable degrees like the Master of Accounting and Master in Management had banner years while avoiding the more lackluster application trends seen among other business master’s programs,” the report states.

In 2024, the median number of total applications for accounting master’s programs was 97, up from 75 applications in 2023. Class size also increased year over year, from 30 students in 2023 to 34 students in 2024. The mean percentage of female applicants declined by four percentage points, reaching 46% in 2024, while the mean percentage of first-generation applicants increased three points to 22%.