The biggest accounting firm in the U.S. just announced a major structural reset: PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) will now only hire new associates in its advisory division to work out of 13 offices, down from 72.
Yolanda Seals-Coffield, chief people and inclusion officer for PwC US, confirmed the decision to Business Insider, explaining that the move aims to foster a sense of community among workers. “The idea is that we want to bring people together in a connected way for those first couple of years,” Seals-Coffield said.
“You may start in Atlanta and then say, ‘Great, I’ve got my two years of experience. I want to go work in Alabama, which is where I’m from and where I really want to work,’” she said.
The slimmed-down choice of locations isn’t the only major change hitting the company. In recent years, PwC has delayed start dates for some entry-level consulting hires. And in 2025, it became clear that landing a job at the firm straight out of college would become more difficult; it announced it would recruit a third fewer new graduates by 2028.
The company has also been making major shifts toward upskilling its workforce in the era of artificial intelligence. On February 5, PwC announced the launch of its “Learning Collective,” a workplace training initiative that it describes as “an ecosystem for accelerated growth built for the possibilities of the AI age.”
“Learning can no longer wait for the right time, place, role, or ladder,” Seals-Coffield said in the announcement. “It needs to be a full-immersion experience that accelerates people and their organizations forward with speed.”
Despite the positive spin on the company’s clear gear shift, it’s hard to imagine that the recalibration doesn’t signal an age of growing uncertainty within the industry. Some experts say it’s a response to economic uncertainty, as well as an ever-changing world that’s grappling with how to best integrate employee capabilities with AI advances.
Deepali Vyas, global head of data and AI at global talent partner ZRG, tells Fast Company that in the AI age, “firms have to double down on what technology cannot easily replicate, including judgment, client presence, collaboration, and problem framing.” She adds that they must become “far more intentional about how they manufacture talent.”
Overall, that seems to mean entry-level roles are seriously shrinking as tasks typically done by first-year hires are increasingly being handed to AI. For Gen Zers who are hoping to get a foot in the door, the problem feels unavoidable, as some reports estimate that entry-level job postings are down by 35% since 2023.
PwC maintains that in a time when so many individuals work remotely for a good portion of the workweek, the move really is about employees getting back to learning from one another in a dynamic environment—which has become increasingly relevant during this post-COVID-19 era. Fast Company spoke with a PwC representative who pushed back on the narrative that the shift signifies an industry slowdown and said that employees and the company alike can make big strides with a more collaborative approach.
Still, as searching for a job has become a truly anxiety-inducing part of life—even for the most competitive of college graduates—any amount of company downsizing is still going to read as a bad omen. When it comes to PwC, the major cut to office space is a highly visible one at that.