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Accenture says to cut 19,000 jobs

Accenture says to cut 19,000 jobs

Agence France-Presse

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Updated Mar 24, 2023 07:30 AM PHT

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In this file photo taken on December 21, 2009, Accenture logo outside their Reston, Virginia, offices. Consulting firm Accenture announced on March 23, 2023, it will be cutting around 19,000 jobs, or 2.5 percent of its workforce, spread over the next 18 months, as part of a cost-cutting effort. In a filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission, the Dublin-headquartered company said it expects to incur $1.5 billion in costs as a result of the downsizing, including $1.2 billion directly related to the layoffs. Paul J. RICHARDS / AFP
In this file photo taken on December 21, 2009, Accenture logo outside their Reston, Virginia, offices. Consulting firm Accenture announced on March 23, 2023, it will be cutting around 19,000 jobs, or 2.5 percent of its workforce, spread over the next 18 months, as part of a cost-cutting effort. In a filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission, the Dublin-headquartered company said it expects to incur $1.5 billion in costs as a result of the downsizing, including $1.2 billion directly related to the layoffs. Paul J. RICHARDS / AFP

NEW YORK, United States - Tech consultancy Accenture announced Thursday it will be cutting around 19,000 jobs, or 2.5 percent of its workforce, spread over the next 18 months, as part of a cost-cutting effort.

In a filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission, the Dublin-headquartered company said it expects to incur $1.5 billion in costs as a result of the downsizing, including $1.2 billion directly related to the layoffs.

About half of the jobs lost are in administrative or support functions, not in areas that lead to billing of customers, the company said.

"While we continue to hire, especially to support our strategic growth priorities... we initiated actions to streamline our operations," the company said in a release.

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Accenture's most recent annual report said it had 721,000 employees in 2022.

The tech consulting and optimization company hired about 100,000 people in its 2022 fiscal year, which ended in August last year.

"We're going after structural costs, right, to ensure that we're in a better position," chief executive Julie Sweet said on an earnings call Thursday.

"We've been dealing with the difficult challenges of compounding wage inflation and we've been doing that with pricing but we've also been doing that with cost efficiencies and digitizing," Sweet said.

According to Sweet, the move is part of a context in which "everyone does want to be optimizing costs," especially in the technology sector, a major consumer of Accenture's services, given the uncertainty associated with the economic situation.

It is also consolidating some of its office space, and will incur $300 million in costs to do so, the company said.

The firm cited "significant economic and geopolitical uncertainty in many markets around the world, which has impacted and may continue to impact our business, particularly with regard to wage inflation and volatility in foreign currency exchange rates."

The company on Thursday reported better-than-expected revenue and net income for its second fiscal quarter ended in late February, but issued a more cautious forecast than the market.

At 1950 GMT (3:49 pm EDT), the company's shares were up 7.6 percent.

The company was spun off from the Chicago-based Arthur Andersen Group in 1989 and renamed Accenture in 2001, moving its headquarters to Bermuda.

It relocated to Ireland in 2009 as then president Barack Obama targeted overseas profits of corporations with headquarters in tax havens.

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© Agence France-Presse

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Agriculture dept to implement maximum SRP for pork by March

Agriculture dept to implement maximum SRP for pork by March

Jervis Manahan,

ABS-CBN News

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MANILA -- The Department of Agriculture is set to implement a maximum SRP for pork by March amidst rising pork prices.

Data from DA Bantay Presyo shows that some pork cuts sell as high as P480 per kilo in some wet markets in Metro Manila.

In a briefing on Monday, Agriculture spokesperson Assistant Secretary Arnel de Mesa said the consultation with stakeholders will be finalized this week so that the maximum SRP will be implemented next month.

The final figure for the MSRP is yet to be announced, but officials earlier hinted it would be below P400.

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"Kung farmgate mo P250, so yung nababanggit nga ng 100 to 100 plus na profit margin. So P380 is reasonable. Sinabi na naman ni Secretary, anything above 400 is medyo sobra," De Mesa said.

(If farmgate is P250, and then you have a profit margin of P100 and above, then P380 is reasonable. The Secretary earlier said that anything above P400 is excessive.)

The agency earlier set 'maximum SRP' or 'MSRP' for rice, which has been lowered regularly to influence prevailing market prices.

"Kaya nga tayo mag-set ng MSRP for the compliance. At kaya nga merong pag-aaral muna and then susunod ang mga konsultasyon para lahat aware dun sa mga gagawing hakbang at para bago pa man din magkaroon ng paglalatag ng MSRP. So yung likelihood ng compliance mataas," De Mesa said.

(We are setting the MSRP for compliance. We study it first and then we consult with stakeholders so everyone is aware even before we implement it.)

"The same na naging strategy with rice. Malaman natin na dapat ganito lamang yung presyo so pag naglatag tayo ng MSRP, susunod sila at maiwasan yung sobrang profit yun o sobrang paglalagay ng mataas na presyo," he added.

(Same strategy with rice. We will know the right pricing and when we implement the MSRP, they will follow. We will avoid having excessive profits and selling at exorbitant prices.)

Consumers like Liezl Santos, who runs her own eatery, said they are feeling the spike in pork prices.

"Nagbabawas na kami ng bili ng pork kasi ang mahal. Nasa 100 ata tinaas," she said.

(We are cutting our pork purchases since pork is so expensive now. It went higher by around P100.)

The Department is also mulling the direct sale of cheaper pork, similar to the Rice for All program.

"Similar to rice where we introduce yung Rice for All, we are also looking in the possibility that DA can also intervene doon," he added.

In a February press briefing, National Statistician Claire Dennis Mapa noted that prices climbed because of the problem of African swine fever in some parts of the Philippines.

Inflation was at 2.9 percent in January, as price increases for food quickened.

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