The most important accounting agency within the U.S. just announced a serious structural reset: PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) will now solely hire new associates in its advisory division to work out of 13 workplaces, down from 72.
Yolanda Seals-Coffield, chief individuals and inclusion officer for PwC US, confirmed the choice to Business Insider, explaining that the transfer goals to foster a way of group amongst employees. “The thought is that we wish to deliver individuals collectively in a linked manner for these first couple of years,” Seals-Coffield stated.
“You could begin in Atlanta after which say, ‘Nice, I’ve acquired my two years of expertise. I wish to go work in Alabama, which is the place I’m from and the place I actually wish to work,’” she stated.
The slimmed-down alternative of places isn’t the one main change hitting the corporate. Lately, PwC has delayed begin dates for some entry-level consulting hires. And in 2025, it grew to become clear that touchdown a job on the agency straight out of faculty would turn into harder; it introduced it will recruit a third fewer new graduates by 2028.
The corporate has additionally been making main shifts towards upskilling its workforce within the period of artificial intelligence. On February 5, PwC introduced the launch of its “Studying Collective,” a office coaching initiative that it describes as “an ecosystem for accelerated progress constructed for the chances of the AI age.”
“Studying can not await the suitable time, place, position, or ladder,” Seals-Coffield stated within the announcement. “It must be a full-immersion expertise that accelerates individuals and their organizations ahead with velocity.”
Regardless of the optimistic spin on the corporate’s clear gear shift, it’s exhausting to think about that the recalibration doesn’t sign an age of rising uncertainty throughout the trade. Some consultants say it’s a response to financial uncertainty, in addition to an ever-changing world that’s grappling with methods to greatest combine worker capabilities with AI advances.
Deepali Vyas, international head of knowledge and AI at international expertise companion ZRG, tells Quick Firm that within the AI age, “corporations need to double down on what know-how can’t simply replicate, together with judgment, consumer presence, collaboration, and downside framing.” She provides that they need to turn into “much more intentional about how they manufacture expertise.”
General, that appears to imply entry-level roles are significantly shrinking as duties usually executed by first-year hires are more and more being handed to AI. For Gen Zers who’re hoping to get a foot within the door, the issue feels unavoidable, as some experiences estimate that entry-level job postings are down by 35% since 2023.
PwC maintains that in a time when so many people work remotely for an excellent portion of the workweek, the transfer actually is about staff getting again to studying from each other in a dynamic setting—which has turn into more and more related throughout this post-COVID-19 period. Quick Firm spoke with a PwC consultant who pushed again on the narrative that the shift signifies an trade slowdown and stated that staff and the corporate alike could make massive strides with a extra collaborative method.
Nonetheless, as looking for a job has turn into a very anxiety-inducing a part of life—even for probably the most aggressive of faculty graduates—any quantity of firm downsizing remains to be going to learn as a nasty omen. Relating to PwC, the most important reduce to workplace area is a extremely seen one at that.
