Accenture plans to cut approximately 890 jobs at its Irish operations, in addition to the 400 employees laid off earlier this year. Both of these actions are part of a round of global job reductions announced in March, according to the IT consulting firm on Monday.
The announcement marked one of the largest layoffs in the IT sector in Ireland, which serves as the European hub for some of the biggest global technology companies.
Accenture is one of the largest foreign multinational employers in Ireland, employing over 6,500 people. The 1,290 job cuts targeted for this year represent nearly 20% of the Irish workforce and are comparable to the 2.5% of the global workforce that the company aimed to eliminate in March.
Accenture stated that its operations in Ireland continued to perform well and that the company remained committed to its presence in Ireland.
In the past year, Meta, Microsoft, Stripe, Google, Salesforce, and messaging platform X, formerly known as Twitter, have all cut jobs in Ireland. Meta, the parent company of Facebook, also announced a second round of layoffs in May to reduce its workforce by nearly 30%, down to 2,000 employees.
Despite these job cuts, employment in the Irish information and communication technology sector grew by 2.7% in the first quarter, according to data reported in May, pushing the overall unemployment rate to a record low of 3.8%.