Edelman, the world's largest PR consultancy, has announced that it will be laying off 390 members of its global team due to the business impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The company is also taking other significant cost-cutting measures including furloughs, pay reductions and reduced work weeks.

"Today, despite all efforts, we are beyond the threshold of loss-making and to ensure the long-term health of our business, I must change course," CEO Richard Edelman told employees in a memo.

"We pulled on every available lever to stave off this decision by reducing our operating expenses. These actions included reducing compensation for executives on our global operating committee by 15 to 20 percent, ending the use of freelancers, temporarily pausing our internship program, hosting a virtual global strategy meeting, limiting external recruiting to only a handful of critical roles globally and slowing internal promotions."

Describing the job cuts as "gut-wrenching", Edelman said, "This is not a reflection on the affected employees, they are our partners and friends, and parting ways with them has been the most difficult decision in my 23 years leading this firm."