Meanwhile, Royal Bank of Scotland Group plc
planned to cut jobs as the U.K. upped its stake.
April 7:
Finance Layoffs: Royal Bank of Scotland plc, Bank of America Corp., more.
April 6:
Law firm pink slips: From Reed Smith LLP to Mayer Brown LLP, and more.
For late March, hardly a day went buy without news: March 30:
Finance Layoffs: UBS, J.P. Morgan and more; March 27:
Finance Layoffs: Societe Generale, BofA and more; March 25:
Finance Layoffs: Wells Fargo, HSBC and more; March 23:
Finance Layoffs: UBS and Mitsubishi; March 20:
Finance Layoffs: Stanford Financial, Pacific Capital and more;March 18:
It's 'Layoff' the game; and UBS reportedly plans to cut 5,000
March 13:
Finance Layoffs: BofA, Regions, Fidelity, more.
March 11:
Finance Layoffs: Citizens, Stanford Financial Group and more. Meanwhile, Bloomberg
weighed in earlier in the week on some law firm cuts.
March 9:
Finance Layoffs roundup: Stanford Financial Group, Bank of America Corp., more.
March 6:
Finance Layoffs roundup: Wells Fargo & Co., HSBC Holdings plc, more.
March 4:
Goldman leads layoffs Down Under: Goldman Sachs Group Inc. is reportedly trimming 5% of
positions in its Australia joint venture Goldman Sachs JB. Meanwhile, the latest finance layoff reports
swirl around Berkshire
Hathaway Inc., J.P. Morgan Chase & Co., HSBC Finance Corp., Bank of
America Corp. and more.
March 2:
Finance Layoffs roundup: HSBC Holdings plc, Citigroup Inc. and others, while
Vanguard Group Inc. bucks the trend and Axinn, Veltrop and Harkrider LLP's John Briggs
weighs in on big law's bloodletting.
Feb. 23:
Finance Layoffs roundup: Royal Bank of Scotland Group plc, Bank of America Corp. and more.
Feb. 19:
Finance Layoffs roundup: Citigroup Inc., Bank of America Corp., Huntington Bancshares, more.
Feb. 18:
Finance layoffs roundup: Barclays plc, Bank of America Corp. and more.
Feb. 13:
Layoff watch: Morgan Stanley, DLA Piper and more.
Feb. 11:
Out the door:
Meanwhile, Paul, Hastings, Janofsky & Walker LLP's Bradford Newman
writes that laid-off employees are taking valuable trade secrets and IP
right along with them.
Feb. 10:
Finance layoffs roundup: UBS, Bank of America Corp. and more.
Feb. 6:
Finance layoffs roundup: State Street Corp., Bank of America Corp. and more.
Feb. 3:
Finance layoffs roundup: PNC Financial Services Group Inc., Fidelity Investments and more.
Jan. 30:
Finance layoffs roundup: Goldman Sachs Group Inc., Morgan Stanley, Band of America Corp. and more.
Jan. 29:
Finance layoffs roundup: Northern Trust Corp., First National Bank and more.
Jan. 22:
Finance layoffs roundup: Bank of America Corp., Comerica Inc., State Street,
UBS and more.
Jan. 20:
Finance layoffs roundup: Cerberus Capital Management LP, Band of America Corp., J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. and more.
Jan. 9:
Finance layoffs roundup: Bank of America Corp., Fidelity Investments, Carlyle Group LP and more.
Jan. 6, 2009: Sun Capital Partners Inc., the Boca Raton, Fla., private equity firm,
is laying off 23 people,
or about 10% of its workforce. Sun Capital's layoffs follow similar
moves by other private equity firms, including Blackstone Group LP and
Carlyle Group. --
Vipal MongaDec. 18:
The layoffs keep coming: Barclays Capital, Citadel Investment Group, Bank of America Corp. and more. Dec. 17: BNP Paribas SA
is considering cutting 800 jobs.
Meanwhile, Dec. 16 there were
surprises in BofA's layoffs: The conventional wisdom about the integration of Merrill Lynch &
Co. by Bank of America Corp. -- offered on this site, among other
places -- is that executives on
both sides face cuts,
but on the BofA side, it's the wealth management folks who are most
likely to have to make way. After all, Merrill's wealth management
operation is the real prize in the deal for BofA CEO Ken Lewis. -
Kenneth KleeThis, two weeks after
shareholders approve Bank of America Corp.-Merrill Lynch & Co., but layoffs loomed.
Mid-December:
Finance layoffs: Schwab, BofA, Northern Trust and more;
BlackRock, BofA, Blackstone and more; Dec. 9:
Layoff news sends stocks down. Days before, they rallied
despite looming layoffs and Dec. 8:
UBS, Citadel, GE Antares all made layoffs headlines.
See also:
Merrill Grinch: Layoffs and other bad tidings before Christmas. Meanwhile, layoffs
hit PE firms, both
in the U.S. and
abroad;
Credit Suisse Group, Nomura Holdings Inc. downsize; and they
loom large at Antares Capital.
Dec. 4:
Bank Layoffs: Credit Suisse, State Street, Carlyle and more: According to a Challenger, Gray & Christmas survey, financial firms have announced 220,000 layoffs.
Dec. 2:
Bank Layoffs: J.P. Morgan, Goldman Sachs, Standard Chartered and more: Many U.S. banks are slashing jobs before the fourth quarter's end, Woehr noted.
Dec. 1: Meanwhile,
layoffs hit the legal world, too, and for some firms, tough times means
find a merger partner or see your lawyers go to your competitors.
Nov. 21:
Layoff roundup: WaMu, Barclays and BoNY, Maria Woehr noted: "Washington Mutual Inc. announced it will eliminate 1,600
jobs in the San Francisco area on Dec. 1, 2008, according to
CNN.
Barclays Capital plans to dole out pink slips to 50 people in its European leveraged finance, loans and sales divisions.
Bank of New York Mellon Corp. will cut its work force by 4%, or about 1,800 jobs, according to
CNBC."
Citigroup Inc.Nov. 17: Citigroup Inc. plans to
lay off 52,000. The cuts will be global, according to a
Reuters report,
and will mostly hit the retail banking business and investment banking,
Woehr noted. This is on top of 23,000 already eliminations between June
and September,
Reuters noted.
J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. Meanwhile, J.P. Morgan may cut
3,000 from its investment banking division, according to
The Telegraph, Woehr wrote.
Fidelity Investments, Putnam Investments Nov. 17: Massachusetts' financial firm Fidelity Investments said
its planned layoffs will include
1,700 employees
in the first quarter of
2009. Last week the company
let go of 1,300 people, according to The Boston Globe. Also,
Massachusetts-based Putnam Investments laid of 47 people as part of a
restructuring, according to the
Boston Herald. -
Maria WoehrNomura Holdings Inc., HSBC, DBS Nomura Holdings Inc.
is laying off many of the employees inherited from Lehman Brothers
Holdings Inc., according to MarketWatch. The cuts are rumored to be in its
fixed-income division, but altogether Nomura took on a total of 8,150
employees. Additionally, HSBC Holdings plc announced it would cut
450 jobs in Asia. -
Maria WoehrMorgan Stanley, Goldman, Sachs & Co.Nov. 14:
Morgan Stanley
plans to cut 10% of the staff in its institutional securities group and
9% of its asset management group to meet restructuring goals, according
to Bloomberg. Goldman, Sachs & Co. recently notified about 3,200 employees that
they were being laid off. The bank also will cut as many as
30 municipal finance professionals,
which is likely part of a 10% layoff the bank announced last month. The
Bond Buyer confirmed that among the layoffs were New York vice
president Frank Oh, who is a general government and transportation
banker, and vice president Robert Foggio, a housing banker. The report
says that mostly senior public finance officials will lose their jobs. -
Maria WoehrWells Fargo, J.P. MorganNov. 6: Wells Fargo & Co.
shares were sinking after executives hinted that it will downsize Wachovia
Corp.'s corporate and investment bank before the end of the year. Wells
Fargo announced it also plans to sell at least $10 billion of stock to
help fund its purchase of Wachovia. Also, J.P. Morgan Chase & Co.
may shut down its
global proprietary trading desk. J.P. Morgan is consolidating operations due to economic conditions. CEO
Jamie Dimon believes the U.S. economic downturn will last at least 12 months.
- Maria Woehr
Morgan StanleyNov. 5:
CNBC reports
Morgan Stanley could lay off 15% of its work force. The report also
estimated that Goldman, Sachs & Co. and J.P. Morgan Chase & Co.
will likely have to lay off 10% to 15% of their employees. -
Maria Woehr
Goldman Sachs Group Inc.
Oct. 23: According to published reports, Goldman Sachs may slash
10% of its work force, as the financial turmoil persists. Back on June 23, the Financial Times said Goldman Sachs was
set to slash
10% of its M&A work force. The
news came days after Reuters reported Goldman let go hundreds of
support staff and junior bankers, and nearly 25% of employees in vice
president roles, Woehr
noted June 16.
Merrill Lynch & Co.Oct. 20: Merrill Lynch & Co.'s chief executive John Thain
told Bloomberg
"thousands" of jobs would be cut upon the bank's sale to Bank of
America Corp. The cuts, The Deal's George White noted, will likely come
in IT, operations and finance and follow 5,000 eliminations the firm
has made in 18 months. BofA had said in September it would try to
hang on to Merrill's top brokers after
agreeing to buy the investment bank for $50 billion.
Oct.
10: After Barclays Capital acquired Lehman Brothers North American
investment banking division, it looked like 10,000 employees would stay
on board. Forbes later
put the job cuts at 3,000. Meanwhile,
750 job cuts came Sept. 30 at Lehman's European fixed-income and personal investment management units.
Sept. 30:
Now bankrupt, Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc.
will slash 750 jobs in its European fixed-income and individual investment management divisions, while
UBS will cut its workforce by 1,900. Meanwhile, Barclays Capital, which bought some of the choicest pieces of Lehman Brothers,
plans to hire an additional 1,500 employees.
The
week of Sept. 15: Lehman Brothers filed for bankruptcy, but the sale of
its North American investment banking division to Barclays looked
poised to
save up to 10,000 jobs at the firm.
In good news, Moelis & Co. and other boutiques are
said to be hiring, as is
Credit Suisse Group. Meanwhile, Citadel Investment Group LLC has been
grabbing top talent amid the credit meltdown. And others have tapped into the
pool of former Bear Stearns bankers. For those in search of a career change, there's always
corporate development, as Corporate Dealmaker has
written about extensively, or switching to
consulting or accounting firms or
private equity.
Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc.
A mere two weeks ahead of its filing, beleaguered Lehman Brothers was thought to be the next firm to announce a fresh round of layoffs.
According to a New York Times report Aug. 28, the investment bank was
preparing to slash up to 1,500 jobs, or 6% of its workforce, ahead of
announcing third-quarter earnings Sept. 15. (Instead, the bank rushed
out its earnings, announced a restructuring, wasn't able to find a
buyer and then filed for bankruptcy. See a related Dealwatch for more.)
The bank was facing $4 billion in fresh write-downs (it turned out
to be $3.9 billion) and needed to do something to shore up cash. The
layoffs were to follow 6,000 since June 2007, the Times said. In late
May, Reuters reported more layoffs were expected at Lehman, as its outlook continued to grow more dim. Lehman had shed more than 5,000 employees in the last year. The firm was to slash another 1,300 jobs globally across divisions.
Citigroup Inc.
Citigroup's latest round of layoffs
could total 10% of its investment banking operations worldwide, The
Wall Street Journal noted June 23, citing sources familiar with the
matter. Cuts are expected to come this week. In April, the bank said it would eliminate 9,000 more employees over the year to come, on top of 4,200 announced in January.
Credit Suisse Group
On top of 1,000 layoffs this year and 325 jobs it slashed in the fall, the bank is near more cuts, according to press reports in late June. Departments expected to see an axe include the bank's high-yield sales, trading and leveraged loan departments, according to the New York Post, while 75 were eliminated across the firm's British investment banking unit, the Guardian reported.
J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. (and Bear Stearns Cos.)
J.P. Morgan, which bought Bear Stearns Cos. for a song in March, may replace 2,000 of its workers with 4,000 it picked up from Bear, Reuters reported June 17. Bear cut nearly 1,500 workers in 2007, Dealscape's Gerald Magpily wrote in November. In connection with the J.P. Morgan deal, 10,000 of its 14,000 employees were said to either take their leave, lose their jobs or were likely to be laid off.
Morgan Stanley
According to a CNBC report in early May, Morgan Stanley was to begin to cut 1,500 employees, on top of 5% of jobs it had already slashed, bringing its total 2008 total to nearly 4,000 eliminations, Dealscape's Matt Wurtzel noted. In June, Magpily noted, Morgan Stanley revealed in June it took a $245 million charge in the second quarter on severance from 3,000 layoffs.
UBS
UBS, Bloomberg reported May 8, could cut 8,000 jobs with 2,500 to 3,000 expected in investment banking. This is on top of the 1,500 UBS cut in 2007, Wurtzel noted.
THE (MIXED) NUMBERS
An exact total isn't easy to come by. Indeed, Woehr pointed out June 24: "'Who really knows how many bankers are unemployed?" But some have taken a stab at a total. Bloomberg reported Sept. 26 they had reached 120,910 since July 2007.
Jim Cramer's tally in a June 16 New York Magazine story, there have been:
"4,000 dismissals at Morgan Stanley, 5,000 at Merrill Lynch, 7,000 at UBS, and 16,000 at Citigroup. ... People talked of the Era of Bear. Now it's gone. Vanished. With more than 10,000 of its 14,000 former employees either looking for work or soon to be laid off by its new owner, JPMorgan."
Woehr notes: "At the end of May there were 22,000 job cuts on Wall Street, according to Crain's New York (which sums up what firms let how many go so far) and 60,000, according to Reuters." The Reuters item is dated June 16.
Comments
Amid credit market turmoil, a subsequent downturn in dealflow and a global recession, pink slips have littered Wall Street, and now PE firms, law firms and other companies are announcing layoffs. Here's Dealscape's latest: 
There are lots of high paying jobs posted on the web now. Many in Banking, finance and Investment banking too -
http://www.realmatch.com
http://www.craiglist.com
http://www.simplyhired.com
Dont dwell on the cuts, hit the job boards!