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A record number of PwC’s UK partners exited the business in 2024 while the Big Four firm has also halted one of its apprenticeship programmes, making cuts to its top and bottom ranks as it strains to protect profitability.

A total of 123 partners left the Big Four firm last year, more than double the annual average since it started disclosing the figures in UK corporate filings in 2002, according to analysis by the Financial Times. 

The squeeze on partner numbers and junior recruitment comes as the firm battles to protect its annual profit pool of close to £1mn per partner, which has been hit by a sharp post-pandemic slowdown in demand across the consulting sector.

PwC has stopped recruiting for one of its apprenticeship schemes and has broken with its previous practice by declining to offer permanent jobs to some of the cohort due to graduate from the programme this year, according to people familiar with the matter.

The firm has offered a “flying start” technology apprenticeship since 2018, alongside other programmes for school leavers, but its website says the scheme is “not currently accepting applications”, while a person close to the firm confirmed it had been “paused”. 

The four-year scheme allows apprentices to gain work experience alongside a degree funded by PwC, which was one of the UK’s top 10 apprenticeship employers in 2023.

In previous years, students who received at least a 2:1 grade were offered permanent jobs, according to people familiar with the matter. But PwC has told 27 of the 91 apprentices due to complete the programme this year that it will not offer them permanent roles when they graduate.

The change was because of “market conditions and as we respond to changes in our clients’ needs”, according to an email seen by the FT.

Some students who were denied a permanent role had missed the window to apply to other Big Four firms because they had expected to be offered a job by PwC if they got the required grades, said one apprentice. 

Graduate and school-leaver recruitment by top accounting firms has waned over the past year. In 2024, PwC recruited about 1,500 people from university, college and school, compared with 1,793 university and school leavers in the previous year. Its rival KPMG hired 942 graduates and apprentices last year, 33 per cent fewer than the year before.

Other cost-saving measures at PwC have included a round of silent lay-offs, in which staff were offered voluntary severance but instructed not to tell their colleagues why they were leaving, and the creation of a new “managing director” title to retain senior staff without promoting them to partnership. 

PwC partners in the UK were paid an average of more than £1mn in the 12 months to June 2022 as companies rushed for advice on overhauling their business models after the Covid pandemic. But the figure has fallen in each of the past two years, averaging £862,000 in 2024 as higher costs and a dealmaking drought led clients to cut spending.

Filings at Companies House, the UK’s corporate registry, show that 74 PwC partners exited in December alone, compared with an average of 12 exits in the same month over the previous 21 years.  

The December bump in partner exits came shortly after Marco Amitrano’s entrance as senior partner for PwC’s UK and Middle East operations in July. The second-highest year for partner exits was 2016 when Amitrano’s predecessor Kevin Ellis was elected and 95 partners left.

Partner numbers at PwC have increased over the years, particularly after the UK firm combined with the network’s Middle East firm in 2009.

PwC has maintained the largest partner pool of the Big Four firms. It has 987 equity partners, down from 1057 in 2023, according to Companies House data. EY and Deloitte have 873 and 757 equity partners respectively, while KPMG has 458.

PwC declined to comment.