San Francisco, Apr 18 (IANS): Joining the 'Big Four' consulting firms, global professional services provider Ernst & Young (EY) will slash around 3,000 jobs or 5 per cent of its workforce in the US, the media reported.

The job cuts have been announced less than a week after the collapse of a plan to spin off EY's global consulting business into a new company, reports Financial Times.

"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," an EY spokesperson was quoted as saying.

These actions are part of the ongoing management of our business and not a result of the recently concluded strategic review, "known as Project Everest", the company spokesperson added.

Among other consulting groups, KPMG laid off close to 2 per cent of its US staff in February.

Accenture would cut 2.6 per cent of its global workforce over the next 18 months, while McKinsey will reduce about 3 per cent of its workforce (about 2,000 jobs).

In January, global investment firm Goldman Sachs fired more than 3,000 employees.

The 'Big Four' accounting and consulting firms all went on a hiring spree during the recovery from the pandemic.

However, the consulting businesses have slowed sharply over the past year after a period of outsized growth, said the report.