KPMG Cuts Jobs As Advisory Demand Slows And Federal Audit Work Winds Down |
KPMG is shaking up its practice with announcements that it is laying off 4% of its staff in its US advisory business, shuttering its federal audit practice and cutting 10% of its U.S. audit partners. Before the cuts, the company operated across 142 countries with roughly 276,000 employees. Some parts of KPMG’s business, such as consulting on artificial intelligence and cybersecurity, are still growing. But others, including consulting on regulations, are in decline and a soft economy means the firm has had less organic attrition than it expected.
The firm was founded in 1987 when Klynveld Main Goerdeler (KMG) and Peat Marwick International (PMI) came together in what was the first multi-billion-dollar merger in the accounting industry. The name stands for the four principal founding members: Piet Klynveld, William Barclay Peat, James Marwick, and Reinhard Goerdeler. Today, it is considered the smallest of the Big Four accounting firms alongside Deloitte, EY, and PwC.
The company reported combined income for all KPMG member firms worldwide for the 2025 fiscal year at $39.8 billion. The U.S. firm (KPMG LLP) typically accounts for a large portion of the Americas region, which reported $15.9 billion in revenue this year.
KPMG’s core business structure is focused on three areas: audit and assurance, tax and legal, and advisory.
Subscriptions renew automatically. You may cancel your subscription at any time.
The audit and assurance sector provides a check on a company's financial health. Basically, auditors examine the financial statements of various companies to verify their accuracy and provide an independent opinion on whether the books fairly represent the organization's financial position. U.S. public companies have been required by law to have their financial statements independently audited each year since 1934 (as part of the Securities Exchange Act). Private companies generally have no such requirement — their finances are typically only scrutinized by banks or private investors. KPMG says it is growing faster in private-company audits. And last month, the company ramped up its private market strategy by introducing........