Global consulting industry revenues (including HR, IT, strategy, operations management and business advisory services) will be about $366 billion in 2011, according to Plunkett Research estimates. This represents reasonable growth from $345 billion in 2010. In the U.S., accounting and related services (such as tax preparation) generated an additional $122.6 billion in 2010, up from about $118.0 billion the previous year, according to the U.S. Bureau of the Census.

Consulting is a somewhat cyclical industry. After a decade of sizzling growth and enviable profits in the 1990s, the consulting business was forced to pull in its reins during 2001-03. The stock market bust of 2000-01, particularly in the technology and telecommunications sectors, caused this setback. Startup companies that were once lucrative consulting clients disappeared under crushing financial losses. Meanwhile, a general economic slowdown in most of the developed world further hampered the consulting industry.

Consultancies posted significant growth from 2005 through 2007. However, 2008-09 marked a challenging period throughout the world, in light of the global economic slowdown and shrinking corporate budgets. In general, major consulting companies, including leading firms in management consulting and HR consulting, along with other advisories such as accounting firms, found themselves with substantial drops in business during 2009, in many cases 5% to 10%. Some companies cut their employee rosters and/or restrained hiring. India’s largest outsourced business and technology consulting firms were complaining that clients were delaying or cancelling projects as 2009 began.

However, as of late 2009 and into early 2011, corporate profits in general have grown dramatically, meaning that executives are more willing to authorize new consulting projects as long as they see the potential for a good return on the cost. During 2010, India’s leading consultancies enjoyed substantial growth in employee count and revenues, as did most of the global consulting firms based in the U.S. and EU.

However, in the U.S. and much of Europe, government budgets were under tremendous pressure as of 2011, at the national, state and local levels, where large deficits loomed and tax revenues were down. This has been particularly hard on some consulting sectors, since governmental agencies are prime clients for consultancies.