Ernst and Young: Big4 office UK wants to grow by 30 percent

EY in the United Kingdom wants to attract 3.700 new employees. According to its plans, the new hires will join in the current financial year, which runs to the end of June 2014. This was announced by the CEO of EY UK Steve Varley in an interview with the British newspaper The Times.

Currently EY in the UK has 11.00 employees, including 550 partners. If it realizes its ambitious growth plan, then the growth rate of the staff will be 30%. It is though not known how attrition will develop, implying that at the end of the line the impact on staff size might be slightly higher or lower. It is the intention that there will be approximately 1.300 students and recently graduated students will be attracted, and also approximately 2.400 experienced employees.

Advisory

Varley is not willing to tell exactly how many new employees will be needed per business unit, but does let us know that the spread will be almost equal across its assurance, tax, advisory and transactions units. However, in terms of size advisory and transactions are smaller units, implying that a relatively higher percentage of in stream will go to the advisory-related service lines.

Comparable with the situation in the Netherlands, Audit servicing is having a hard time in the UK, as a result of intense competition, rapidly changing rules and harsh pressure on margins. To the contrary, the consulting services are enjoying a strong rebound, backed by increasing client demand and higher margins.