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- Big 4 accounting firm EY told US staff they will not be receiving holiday bonuses this year, per the FT.
- The accounting giant said this was due to "the changing economic environment."
- Companies across the board are rethinking their strategies amid fears of a recession.
Accounting giant EY told staff in the US they will not be receiving holiday bonuses this year due to a challenging economic outlook, the Financial Times reported, citing people on a Friday all-hands call.
For the past two years, EY, a 'Big 4' accounting firm, paid merit bonuses to top performers around this time of the year, in addition to the main bonuses at the end of the July-to-June fiscal year. But this year there will be no money for the mid-year bonuses, per the FT.
"While EY continues to experience strong revenue growth, we have elected at this time not to fund our additional, discretionary mid-year program given the changing economic environment," the accounting giant told the FT in a statement.
EY scrapping its holiday bonuses due to economic uncertainties stands in stark contrast to its euphoria in the fiscal year ended-2022, which the firm's global leaders called "one of the most successful years in the history of the organisation," the FT reported.
The belt-tightening is also jarring: EY is planning to split its accounting and consulting businesses into two separate companies — a move that could see most of the firm's 13,000 partners receiving up to $8 million worth of shares.
And it's not just EY that's cutting back — companies across the board are shifting their strategies amid fears of an impending recession.
There have been high-profile layoffs at numerous tech giants including Meta and Salesforce, and even banks and financial firms have come under pressure — Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley have also made cuts in recent months.
EY did not immediately respond to a request from Insider sent outside regular business hours.
Huileng Tan