Business has picked up at the Big Four professional services firm Deloitte, bucking the downward trend that has plagued major consulting firms in recent years as they tackled sluggish demand for their services.
Deloitte’s global revenue grew 5% to hit $70.5 billion in its 2025 financial year, which covers the year ending 31 May 2025, the firm reported on Tuesday.
In its previous financial year, Deloitte’s growth rate had dropped sharply from 14.9% to 3.1%.
“Clients around the world are placing their trust in Deloitte to navigate an unprecedented level of complexity and change,” said Joe Ucuzoglu, Deloitte’s global CEO, in a press release.
At the beginning of the 2025 financial year, Deloitte restructured its core business lines, cutting them from five to four. The firm was targeted by the Trump administration’s DOGE cost-cutting drive in February 2025, and had a number of its government contracts eliminated.
Deloitte reported that it has expanded its global workforce by 10,000 to total 470,000 employees.
Results were strongest in the Americas and Asia-Pacific regions, with growth hitting 7.1% and 4.9%, respectively. However, the picture at Deloitte’s UK arm wasn’t as rosy.
Annual revenue at Deloitte UK declined for the first time in 15 years,
The UK branch reported annual revenue of £5.68 billion ($7.6 billion) in the year ending 31 May 2025 — a 1% decline on the previous year. The results include the firm’s Switzerland office.
Growth at Deloitte UK has slowed in recent years, falling from 14% to 2.4% in its 2024 financial year, but this is the first time revenue has registered a drop since the Great Recession years of 2009 and 2010.
“Geopolitics and continued economic headwinds meant that many organisations have been carefully managing their costs and delaying certain investments,” said Richard Houston, the CEO of Deloitte UK and a senior partner, in a press release. He described the firm’s performance as “a robust set of results in a complex market.”
Deloitte’s UK consulting business contracted 10% to £1.67 billion, or $1.9 billion, which the firm said was caused by clients holding back investments in “large scale change programmes.”
To respond to the slowdown in demand, the CEO said that Deloitte UK has “had to review and make changes to the shape of our firm.”
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Compared to the previous financial year, Deloitte cut promotions by 1,300 and appointed 20 fewer partners. The firm also reduced hiring for the second year running — the number of “new colleagues” fell from 6,800 in the 2023 financial year to 3,160 this year.
The firm’s UK arm has reorganized its business divisions, laid off workers, and introduced a series of cost-cutting measures, such as reducing its spending on staff travel and expenses by more than 50%.
Profits were up 4% in the 2025 financial year, and average profit per equity partner rose to £1.05 million ($1.3 million).
UK partners pocketed over £1 million for the fifth year running, the highest partner returns amongst the Big Four, which also includes PwC, KPMG, and EY.
Deloitte converted 77 people from salaried to equity partner, nearly three times as many as it did the previous year. The firm said the promotions were “a sign of confidence in our firm’s future and the growth opportunities ahead.”
Globally, Deloitte is the largest of the Big Four by both revenue and employees. Its UK branch contributed about 10% of the firm’s global revenue in its 2024 financial year.
The Big Four firms are attempting to balance operations following the end of the pandemic-era rush on advisory services, which left consulting divisions within an inflated workforce. AI is also driving change and disrupting revenue streams across major consulting firms.
The results reflect the market up to May this year.
In an internal memo to Deloitte’s UK staff in May 2025, obtained by Business Insider, Houston said the firm had anticipated “greater economic stability and a gradual return of growth opportunities” at the start of the 2025 financial year.
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