After year-long efforts to push partners to voluntarily retire early did not bring enough exits, has announced to cut roughly 10% of its audit partners in the US, The Wall Street Journal reported.
While the firm did not disclose the exact number of people affected, approximately 100 partners will be exiting the firm according to news reports. Some of them had agreed to leave through voluntary early retirement, while others are part of the latest cuts.
KPMG is one of the Big Four accounting firms, alongside , PwC and EY. Its audit division employs around 1,400 partners and managing directors, based on the company’s January audit-quality report. According to The Wall Street Journal, managing directors are not included in the current cuts.
Streamlining Operations
The firm said that the job cuts were for streamlining operations in the audit business as opposed to addressing individual poor performance.
“This action is connected to a multiyear strategy to align the size, shape and skills of our team to the power of our audit platform to best serve our clients and protect the capital markets,” KPMG reportedly said in a statement. It added that the laid off partners will receive financial packages and placement support, “reflecting the value they have given to KPMG and our clients.”
Despite the cuts, KPMG said its US audit business is growing. The firm audits around 10% of companies registered with the US Securities and Exchange Commission, according to an Ideagen Audit Analytics report released in March.
This places KPMG behind its rivals— with Deloitte auditing 15% companies, EY auditing 13% and PwC auditing 12% companies registered in the US.
Layoffs Everywhere
KPMG’s job cuts come close on the heels of Meta announcing plans to cut over 8,000 job roles and leave 6,000 roles unfilled as it ramps up spending on artificial intelligence (AI). Meanwhile, Microsoft is offering voluntary buyouts to about 8,750 employees in the United States, covering nearly 7% of its domestic workforce.
In fact, more than by 97 tech firms so far in 2026, according to layoffs.fyi, an independent real-time tracker of job losses in the tech and startup sectors across the world.
Popular sneaker brand Nike too announced trimming its technology department by cutting down 1,400 roles. This was the second round of layoffs announced by Nike this year — 775 roles were reportedly eliminated in January.
Collectively, these announcements have led to cutting down of over 24,000 jobs in the US a single day.