Tech staffing firm Accenture is laying off more than 500 employees in Austin amid a broader wave of layoffs by technology employers.
Accenture, an Irish-American contracting company focused on information technology services and consulting, is considered one of Austin’s largest technology employers and has a significant presence in Texas with offices in Austin, Dallas, Houston and San Antonio. The company has contracts with major technology giants including Google and Facebook’s parent company Meta, but some of these contracts ended in recent months as the technology industry in general looks to reduce costs.
Accenture has about 5,900 employees in Austin, according to the Austin Chamber of Commerce, which tracks the region’s top technology employers. The layoffs come as a number of technology giants, including those with large Austin presences, have cut hundreds of employees in recent months amid an uncertain economic environment.
The layoff numbers were reported in a WARN letter, which stands for Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act. Employers are federally mandated to provide notice to state governments in the event of major layoffs.
In a statement, an Accenture spokesperson said on Wednesday that the company adjusts its workforce from time to time to ongoing projects to meet the needs of its clients.
WARN notes:See which companies announced layoffs and closings
The layoffs in Austin follow a broader announcement Accenture made in March in an SEC filing that said the company would cut 19,000 employees worldwide over the next 18 months, or about 2.5% of its workforce. At the time, Accenture said it expected more than half of the cuts to be in non-billing business functions, which the company has been working to streamline along with some other operations in recent months to reduce costs.
The WARN notice does not block which positions in Austin are affected, but does indicate that it includes a variety of positions. The WARN notice said up to 549 people will be laid off, with their last days between June 27 and September 8.
“This action is due to a change in customer contract requirements and is expected to be permanent,” the statement said.
The cuts follow the company’s rapid growth in recent years. As of March, the company had more than 738,000 employees, up from 699,000 employees at the end of February 2022, according to the SEC filing.
According to the notice, Accenture’s affected facility is located at 11800 Alterra Parkway, Austin, TX 78758, at the domain. Accenture’s website lists several Austin offices, although it does not list this office space.
But, the address is the same as one of Facebook’s Austin offices, and Accenture has contracts with Meta to provide the tech giant with contract employees.
More:Facebook, Instagram parent company Meta to cut another 10,000 workers; unclear if one is in Austin
Accenture said the cuts come “due to a change in client contract terms” that are expected to be permanent.
Despite the number of cuts, in the announcement, the company said the Austin facility will not close. The notice said all employees affected have already been notified or will be at least 60 days before their last day.
“We will rescind an employee’s termination if they are able to obtain a new role within Accenture during the notice period and we will support their efforts to search for a new role,” the WARN notice said.
The cuts at Accenture come as other tech giants let go of thousands of employees. Industry experts said Central Texas’ tech workforce has undoubtedly seen the effects of the reductions, including those affecting companies with large Austin employees, including Google, Austin-based Tesla and Meta.
In recent months, that has included Intel, which confirmed last week that it would lay off employees nationwide in positions across the company. The company, which also put its southwest Austin office on the market this year, had about 2,100 people employed in Austin as of 2022, but declined to disclose the number of positions that could be affected nationally, or in Central Texas .
On Tuesday, Austin-based Tesla CEO Elon Musk predicted during a shareholder meeting that he expected the ongoing economic uncertainty to continue for at least another 12 months, and while he expected Tesla to come out strong on the other side, he expected some companies will go bankrupt.
More:AI robots, Cybertrucks and more: 6 takeaways from Tesla’s shareholder meeting
Other companies cutting employees in recent months include Round Rock-based Dell Technologies, which announced it is laying off 6,650 employees worldwide, or about 5% of its workforce to prepare for the economic environment.
In March, Austin-based job site Indeed announced that layoffs are expected to affect about 15% of its global workforce due to a cooling labor market and reduced demand for its technology. That same month, Meta, which had about 2,000 employees in Austin prior to layoffs, announced its latest round of cuts in March, cutting 10,000 employees nationwide, though it did not say whether any layoffs would be in Austin.
More:Intel cuts jobs nationwide, to sell Austin office amid broader tech industry uncertainty
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