Still waiting for the cat to come out of the bag

It all started in August, with an unofficial, official statement (available only on Factiva, the Dow Jones News Service) announcing a "slightly less than 2%" staff reduction at Deloitte. There was no further comment from the company, no headlines in the news, and what ensued were a few discombobulated, "he said, she said" postings on the Vault message boards and other blogs trying to make sense of the announcement. Who was getting cut? Were the cuts across all departments and offices? When would they be coming? Are they purely based on utilization rates?

For the most part, the matter was dropped for a few months. It resurfaced this week, though, with some chatter on a Deloitte insider blog about further cuts coming in January. So far, not much to go on except for the same old confusion over which service lines will be affected.

Does anyone have (factual) details on this? We'll be keeping our ears to the ground over the next few months to keep you up-to-date.

On a related note, Deloitte's "slightly less than 2%" staff reduction, which could/is currently happening, could theoretically be worse, I suppose, according to a recent study conducted by MBAs at Harvard Business School. Researchers found that between 21% and 42% of US jobs are potentially offshoreable. Consulting services, says study co-author and Harvard professor Jan Rivkin, are not beyond outsourcing's grasp.

Says Rivkin: "The case raises an uncomfortable question: Why should Monitor pay a Harvard MBA top dollar to conduct business research in the United States while an Indian Institute of Management graduate could do the work just as effectively in Delhi for much lower pay? I think that brought home to many students that offshoring could affect them personally."

Talk about putting things in perspective ?