In a ranking of employers that hired college graduates from the classes of 2019 through 2021, the Big Four firms—Deloitte, Ernst & Young, KPMG and PwC—each hired more than any employer except for  Amazon, Accounting Today reported. The list, compiled by education information provider OnlineU, resulted from an analysis of employment data from more than 560,000 graduates who earned their degrees in 2019-21 and were hired during the COVID-19 pandemic. 

Specifically, OnlineU reported that Deloitte hired 5,256 (0.93 percent of the 560,00 graduates), Ernest & Young hired 4,727 (0.84 percent), KPMG hired 3,583 (0.63 percent), and PwC hired 3,220 (0.57 percent). Amazon came in first, with 7,374 hires (1.31 percent). 

The study found that after initial revenue declines, the Big Four all grew revenue above pre-pandemic levels by the end of 2021. 

Deloitte, at No. 2, was reported to be the top employer for economics majors, with the top degrees including accounting, business administration, economics, and computer science. The most popular jobs for Deloitte new hires included business analyst, consultant, senior business analyst and auditor. 

Ernst & Young, at No. 3, ranked as the top employer for management information systems and accounting majors. At the firm, the top degrees for new hires were accounting, business administration, finance and economics. The most popular jobs were quality assurance manager, consultant and intern. 

For KPMG, at No. 4, the top degrees were in accounting, business administration, finance and economics. The most popular jobs for new hires included internal audit manager, intern and senior accountant. 

For PwC, the top degrees were in accounting, business administration, economics and finance. The most popular jobs for new hires were quality assurance auditor, intern and tax preparer. 

Around the same position as PwC in the No. 5 or 6 spot was Accenture, which originated as Andersen Consulting, the consulting arm of the former Big Five firm Arthur Andersen. That firm hired 2,947 recent graduates (0.52 percent.) 

In its methodology section, OnlineU reported that its data “comes from Emsi Burning Glass, an analytics company that maintains regularly updated employment data to provide insights into today's labor market. Employment data comes from publicly available sources, including resumes, job postings, and LinkedIn profiles. This data includes 564,624 graduates who earned their bachelor's degrees in 2019 through 2021. Employment data reflects where each college graduate was employed one year after earning their degree.”