- Partner numbers at PwC's UK division fell sharply last year.
- The firm parted ways with more partners in 2024 than it had in the two previous years combined.
- The Big Four firm has also paused a hiring program for high school leavers.
PwC's UK division closed out 2024 by parting ways with more than 70 partners as the consulting giant worked to weather a slowdown in the sector.
The Big Four firm cut 76 partners from its ranks in a single day on December 31, 2024, according to Business Insider's analysis of publicly available data. The end-of-year departures topped off a year that had already seen a larger than usual number of partners depart.
A total of 124 partners left the firm in 2024, according to records at the UK's Companies House.
In 2023 and 2022 combined, 103 partners left PwC's UK arm. In those two years, it also appointed more partners than it let go, adding 225 to its most senior ranks.
Last year, the firm appointed 69 new partners. Companies House data says it has 987 active partners as of March 13.
The Financial Times first reported on PwC's partner exodus.
PwC, which doesn't provide reasons as to why partners leave the firm, declined to comment.
Partners are the most senior employees at the Big Four consultancies. Those who hold equity ownership in the business traditionally receive a share of annual profits. As market pressures have weighed on the Big Four, partner numbers and their payouts have been falling.
Partners at the UK wings of EY, PwC, and Deloitte all saw their pay fall last year as growth slowed.
The high annual exit numbers come in the same year as Marco Amitrano was appointed to lead the firm's UK and Middle East operations.
Amitrano, who took up the role in July, has launched an overhaul of operations in the UK. This includes creating a stand-alone technology and artificial intelligence unit and merging other parts of the business to create six new teams. He is also seeking to control costs amid an industry downturn.
Growth at PwC's combined UK and Middle East divisions slowed by seven percentage points to 9% in 2024.
From April 2025, it will be facing higher taxes per employee in the UK after the government increased the rate of national insurance contributions — a tax on earnings — that employers must pay.
The firm has recently paused one of its apprenticeship schemes in the UK, from which it typically hires, according to a person familiar with the matter.
BI understands that the "flying start" technology apprenticeship, which had offered opportunities to high school graduates since 2018, is no longer accepting applications.
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