UK financial services firm EY to cut 3,000 jobs in US

British financial services giant EY, which last week dropped a plan to split its audit and advisory units, said Monday it will cut 3,000 US jobs, citing overcapacity at the firm.

“After assessing the impact of current economic conditions, strong employee retention rates and overcapacity in parts of our firm, we have made the difficult business decision to separate approximately 3,000 US employees, representing less than five percent of our US workforce,” said an EY spokesperson.

The move comes after EY stopped its planned reorganization, called “Project Everest,” which aimed to accelerate growth and avoid conflicts of interest.

The change was opposed by the firm’s US branch. EY said the job cuts “are part of the ongoing management of our busi-ness and not a result of the recently concluded strategic review,” the spokesperson said. The job cuts follow recent down-sizings at other large accounting firms and consultancies. Tech consultancy Accenture announced in March it was cutting 19,000 jobs, or 2.5 per cent of its workforce. KPMG and McKinsey have also announced job cuts recently.