Deloitte has joined the ranks of companies announcing workforce reductions, informing its employees on Friday that it will be cutting approximately 1,200 jobs in the United States. As one of the Big Four financial consulting firms, Deloitte is the latest to announce layoffs in response to a slowdown in its consulting business.

As per a Financial Times report, the job cuts at Deloitte equate to approximately 1.5 percent of its workforce in the United States.

The layoffs at Deloitte will primarily impact areas such as the financial advisory business, which has been negatively impacted by a decline in merger and acquisition activity.

According to discussions among employees on online forums, it was revealed in a call with staff on Thursday that Deloitte's Risk and Financial Advisory division would be implementing the job cuts.

As per the Financial Times report, the job cuts at Deloitte's Risk and Financial Advisory division amount to approximately 3 percent of the workforce.

“Our US businesses continue to experience strong client demand, as growth in select practices moderates, we are taking modest personnel actions where necessary.” a Deloitte spokesperson said, reported Financial Times.

In February, another Big Four firm KPMG declared that it would be implementing job cuts that would impact nearly 2 percent of its workforce in the United States.

Just this week, EY revealed that it would be letting go of 3,000 employees in the United States. This announcement comes less than a week after the company abandoned a project to spin off its consulting business.

Amid the surge in demand from clients seeking guidance on IT transformation for remote work and increased corporate mergers and acquisitions (M&A) activity, Deloitte and other industry competitors increased their hiring efforts after the onset of the pandemic.

Deloitte's annual transparency report revealed that its US workforce grew from 65,000 in 2021 to 80,000 in the past year. The London-based firm reported an annual revenue of $59.3 billion in 2022. While the consulting industry continues to experience robust growth in certain areas, it is facing contraction in others.

According to a recent survey conducted by William Blair among M&A advisers, only one-third of them reported an increase in demand quarter-over-quarter.