PwC is abandoning its hiring target for 2026, settling on workforce reductions to help right itself back as a thriving member of the Big Four. The accounting firm recently revealed a concerning slowdown in its revenue numbers for the third consecutive year, after its global revenue grew 2.9% to $56.9 billion in its 2025 financial year, which marks the year ending June 30. While numbers are still trending on the positive side with evident progress by the business, the slowdown did have PwC turning to job cuts in 2025.
The company previously established a 100,000-person hiring target for mid-2026, but this no longer appears to be an active goal. If PwC did return to the hiring target now, it would require some extensive recruiting over the next 12 months to achieve.
PwC abandons its hiring target in favor of AI investments and reorganization efforts. (Image: Pexels)
PWC Abandons Hiring Target, Turns Back to the Tried-and-Tested Formula of Job Cuts
In 2021, PricewaterhouseCoopers, under the direction of then-leader Bob Mortiz, revealed an ambitious five-year investment plan to recruit 100,000 workers globally. The targets for expanding the workforce were certainly impressive, and for the most part, the company has grown in scale over the last few years. Regrettably, external challenges and the emergence of new technology have complicated the business’s plans to achieve its hiring goal.
In 2025, PwC was seen turning to layoffs instead, reducing its headcount by 5,600 employees to 365,000, instead of adding to its ranks. In order to meet the 2026 target, Business Insider estimates that PwC will have to hire over 40,000 workers over the next 12 months if it has any hopes of meeting its goals.
The company has stated that it is still actively hiring workers and has no set embargoes on hiring, but the data suggest that PwC’s global workforce will continue to shrink. “We continue to hit our investment targets, and we continue to hire,” Global Chair Mohamed Kande explained to the Financial Times. “We have rolled out AI tools and upskilled over 315,000 in AI, which is boosting the productivity of our people.”
PwC’s Global Workforce Shrinks as Hiring Plans Also Slow Down
For more evidence of PwC abandoning its hiring target, we have data to suggest that the business has also slowed down graduate hiring, with confirmed plans to cut it by a third over the next three years. The business has focused on making other changes to its identity and structure in the last year, choosing to showcase a brand-new front that is up-to-date with AI.
“This year, we invested in our people, expanded our technological offerings, and continued to build leading-edge capabilities to help our clients thrive,” Kande mentioned in a letter provided with the earnings report. “The coming year will bring more change and complexity,” he added.
PwC has already slowed down its hiring for entry-level roles in the UK. “At PwC, our entry-level numbers are lower this year, reflecting the wider slowdown in investment, hiring, and deal-making across the economy,” Marco Amitrano, the leader of the UK wing of PwC, confirmed in a post.
After a considerable number of controversies this year, the business promptly pulled out of 13 countries and saw a reduction in its number of clients, falling from 175,000 to 180,000. Confronting change on a global scale, PwC is unsurprisingly limiting its workforce expansion plans for now.
PwC’s AI Drive Linked to the Job Reductions
Much like other businesses that have rallied behind AI, PwC has also enforced an AI drive motivated by job reductions. The Times estimates that between July 2024 and June 2025, the company spent almost $1.5 billion on expanding and scaling its AI capabilities.
“Artificial intelligence, environmental shifts, and new geopolitical realities are reshaping the global economy faster than ever before,” Kande stated. “Traditional industries are being reimagined, new ecosystems are forming, and capital is flowing toward innovation at scale.” With the company’s growth lagging behind its top competitors, Deloitte and EY, it’s no surprise that the business is exploring alternative solutions to match their global growth rates.
From Amazon to YouTube, many businesses have doubled down on headcount reduction plans this month, with most strategies leading back to an increased investment in AI-based productivity. Reports from earlier in the year suggested that businesses were settling in on a “no hire, no fire” strategy, but from the look of things, firing is still, very visibly, on the table.
Despite PwC abandoning its hiring target, the job cuts, compared to its rivals, have been witnessed on a smaller scale. This does spark hope that the company will renew its efforts to expand its workforce and allow hopeful job seekers to prove themselves in the fast-paced world of accounting and consulting. The predetermined target may have been an abstract and ambitious one to start with, but returning to such expansion goals could be beneficial in more ways than one.
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