Working in Ireland at the moment. Things have slowed down alot in recent months. Rumours abound of lay-offs in the pipeline. Anybody have any views on this front? I hear that ACN in the UK has already gone through a couple of rounds of lay-offs. Is this true or a case of Chinese whispers? If so, at what levels, competencies and industry teams?

I dont work for ACN in Ireland but I do know people that do and while word is things are very slow this summer, i havent heard of any layoffs yet and this years grad offers seem to still be in place. The irish economy is tanking hard and fast and it's gonna get a lot worse in the medium term - nobody's job is safe.

Thansk - yeah, the grad plan is still full steam ahead as far as I know, which I personally find reassuring, if a little surprising. If there is a headcount cut, I wonder whether it will be at the higher end of the business - where salaries etc. do really impact on the bottom line. That's why I'd be interested to know the UK experience...?

I just get the feeling that they are tightening their belt. Quote from the website "Please note that due to a high interest in our graduate positions throughout the year, the next available Analyst Consulting Group start date is now 5 October 2009. We apologise if this is inconvenient to you."

Grad intake for 08 and 09 is around the same as previous years, so no reductions in this area.There have been redundancies in the UK, but numbers have been so low that no announcements have been necessary. Nothing huge.

I work for Accenture (FS) and lets just say the bench is positively vibrant at the moment. FS is very slow and the pipeline is looking quite depressing - and this seems to be reflected across most sectors according to feedback from colleagues.

There were some redundancies from the solutions workforce in july