Tech firm Accenture slashing 549 jobs at Domain offices in Austin

Tech staffing firm Accenture is laying off more than 500 employees in Austin amid a wider wave of cuts by technology employers.

Accenture, an Irish-American contract firm focused on information technology services and consulting, is considered one of Austin's largest technology employers and has a significant Texas presence with offices in Austin, Dallas, Houston and San Antonio. The company has contracts with large technology giants, including Google and Facebook parent-company Meta, but some of these contracts ended in recent months as the tech industry at large looks to reduce costs.

Accenture has approximately 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 Wednesday the company adjusts its workforce from time to time on ongoing projects to meet the needs of its clients.

WARN notices: See which companies announced layoffs and closings

The Austin layoffs follow a wider announcement Accenture made in March in an SEC filing that said the company would be cutting 19,000 employees globally, or about 2.5% of its workforce, over the next 18 months. At the time, Accenture said it expected more than half of the cuts to be in nonbillable corporate functions, which the company has been working to streamline in recent months along with some other operations, to reduce costs.

The WARN notice blocks out what positions in Austin are affected, but it does indicate it includes a range of positions. The WARN notice said that up to 549 people will be cut, with their last days between June 27 and Sept. 8.

"This action is due to a change in client contract requirements and expected to be permanent," the notice 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 at 11800 Alterra Parkway in the Domain. The Accenture website lists several Austin offices, though it does not list this office space.

But the Domain address is the same as one of Facebook's Austin offices, and Accenture does have 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 any 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 notice, the company said the Austin facility will not be closing. The notice said that all the affected employees already have been notified or will be at least 60 days before their last day.

"We will rescind an employee’s termination if, during the notice period, they are able to obtain a new role within Accenture 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 the Central Texas tech workforce has undoubtedly seen effects from the reductions, including those at companies with large Austin workforces including Google, Meta and Austin-based Tesla.

In recent months that has included Intel, which last week confirmed it would be laying off employees nationally in positions across the company. The company, which also put its Southwest Austin office on the market this year, employed about 2,100 people in Austin as of 2022, but Intel declined to disclose the number of positions that could be affected nationally or in Central Texas.

During a Tesla shareholders meeting Tuesday, CEO Elon Musk predicted the ongoing economic uncertainty will continue for at least 12 more months, and, while he expected Tesla would come out on the other side strong, 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 was laying off 6,650 employees globally, or about 5% of its workforce, to prepare for the economic environment.

In March, Austin-based jobs website Indeed announced cuts expected to affect about 15% of its global workforce due to a cooldown in the job 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, shedding 10,000 employees nationally, though it did not say if any of the layoffs would be in Austin.

More: Intel slashes jobs nationally, to sell Austin office amid wider tech industry uncertainty

This article originally appeared on Austin American-Statesman: Accenture lays off 549 employees at Austin's Domain office