EY has announced that it recruited more than 4,000 people in the UK during the year ending July 1st 2016, against a backdrop of rising revenue.
More than 1,500 students joined the company, while 62 new equity partners were added to the UK partnership, building on the record 95 who were admitted last year.
Steve Varley, the professional services firm's UK chairman, pointed out that nearly 30 per cent of the new recruits were women and 15 per cent were from a black or minority ethic background. He said this represents strong performance against EY's goals of 30 per cent and ten per cent respectively in these areas of recruitment.
"We are investing for the future and diversity and inclusiveness is a core part of this," he added.
The company's efforts to improve diversity and social mobility have also included the removal of academic qualifications from its entry criteria for graduates, undergraduates and school leavers. Its new assessment tools are designed to look beyond candidates' backgrounds and bring out their "true potential".
As far as EY's financial performance is concerned, the figures showed a seven per cent increase in UK fee income to £2.15 billion during the year to the start of July. This brings the firm's compound annual growth rate over the last five years to eight per cent, which has added almost £700 million to its revenue.
Growth was recorded across all four of the group's service lines - tax, assurance, transaction advisory services and financial services - while investment has focused on technological innovation.
Mr Varley said: "We had another good year at EY, with strong growth across all of our service lines, sectors and regions. This has partly been driven by a focus on innovation and investment in technology, both within our own business and in the services we provide to our clients."
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