PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC), one of the big four accountancy firms in the UK, will not reduce the number of graduate jobs it provides in the north-west in 2010.

Ian Powell, UK chairman and senior partner of accountancy at PwC, said that it will keep up its operations in Manchester and Liverpool, taking advantage of graduate talent in the area.

Having been chosen for the sixth consecutive year as number one in the Times Top 100 Graduate Employers list, the company is also expanding its consultancy division, which could see extra graduate jobs created.

Mr Powell told the Manchester Evening News: "Our strategy is to continue to invest so we can come out of the recession stronger than we went into it."

He added that although 2010 will be a "tough" year, there will be a 0.75 per cent increase in the gross domestic product that will bring a slow release from recession.

PwC recently announced that seven graduate jobs have now been taken up by former students in Yorkshire, who will work in the company's assurance and public sector departments, the Sheffield Telegraph reported.