San Francisco, Feb 16 (IANS): Global consulting firm KPMG is laying off 2 per cent of its workforce that will impact about 700 employees in the US, owing to a "sharp slowdown in its consulting business".

According to The Financial Times, KPMG has become the first of the Big Four accountancy firms to reduce jobs amid global macroeconomic conditions.

The job cuts, according to Carl Carande, vice-chair of KPMG's US advisory business, were needed to "better align our workforce with current and anticipated demand in the market".

According to the report, like the other Big Four firms (EY, Deloitte, and PwC), KPMG has also been struggling with the collapse in merger and acquisition activity, which has hit its deal advisory business.

"We continue to have more people than needed to meet current demand," Carande wrote in an internal memo.

"The reductions are spread across the US and across the consulting business, but do not include any partners," said the report.

The Big Four financial accounting firms went on a hiring spree in the wake of the pandemic, as demand for IT consulting and deal advisory work had surged.

Last month, global investment firm Goldman Sachs fired more than 3,000 employees in disguise of business meetings as early as 7.30 a.m. and the meetings with senior managers were put on Google calendar under "false pretenses", according to media reports.

The layoffs at the global financial services also hit Indian workers hard and some of the impacted IITians and IIM graduates had shared their plight on various social media platforms.