Wall Street Workers Facing Layoffs Ahead Of Holidays

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Credit Suisse--5300 people
Nomura--25% of London staff of 4500
Morgan Stanley--2000
Jefferies Group--300

By BETTINA WASSENER

Published: December 4, 2008

Credit Suisse announced Thursday it would cut 5,300 jobs — 11 percent of its global workforce and Nomura of Japan said that it planned 1,000 job cuts at its London office as the financial crisis and economic downturn intensifies.

The cuts add to the tens of thousands of job losses in the global financial sector in recent months as the crisis that began with U.S. subprime mortgage meltdown last year worsened.

Credit Suisse said in a statement in Zurich that it had losses of about 3 billion Swiss francs, or $2.5 billion, in October and November, and the job losses, most of which will be made in the first half of 2009, are designed to reduce costs by 2 billion francs. Most of the cuts will come at the ailing investment banking unit.

“In light of Credit Suisse’s 2008 performance to date,” the bank said in a statement, the bank’s chairman, chief executive officer and the head of its investment bank will forego bonuses this year.

Credit Suisse shares initially fell on the news, but were 1.2 percent higher by mid-morning. Its rival UBS, which has also announced job cuts, was 3.9 precent up. So far this year, the two banks’ shares are sharply lower, in line with banks around the globe. Credit Suisse has lost 59 percent since January 1, while UBS has slumped 69 percent.

Separately, Nomura, the Japanese bank that earlier this year bought the Asian, European and Middle Eastern operations of Lehman Brothers, whose collapse in mid-September triggered a dramatic escalation in the current crisis, announced it would eliminate 1,000 jobs in London.

That cut amounts to about one-fifth of the bank’s London workforce, and will also hit some former Lehman employees, Bloomberg News reported. Nomura last month had said it had no plans to slash jobs.

Others banks, like Goldman Sachs and JPMorgan have already announced significant layoffs, while Citigroup’s announcement that it would cut 52,000 jobs sent shock waves throughout the already shaken financial world last month.

By BETTINA WASSENER

Published: December 4, 2008

Credit Suisse announced Thursday it would cut 5,300 jobs — 11 percent of its global workforce and Nomura of Japan said that it planned 1,000 job cuts at its London office as the financial crisis and economic downturn intensifies.

The cuts add to the tens of thousands of job losses in the global financial sector in recent months as the crisis that began with U.S. subprime mortgage meltdown last year worsened.

Credit Suisse said in a statement in Zurich that it had losses of about 3 billion Swiss francs, or $2.5 billion, in October and November, and the job losses, most of which will be made in the first half of 2009, are designed to reduce costs by 2 billion francs. Most of the cuts will come at the ailing investment banking unit.

“In light of Credit Suisse’s 2008 performance to date,” the bank said in a statement, the bank’s chairman, chief executive officer and the head of its investment bank will forego bonuses this year.

Credit Suisse shares initially fell on the news, but were 1.2 percent higher by mid-morning. Its rival UBS, which has also announced job cuts, was 3.9 precent up. So far this year, the two banks’ shares are sharply lower, in line with banks around the globe. Credit Suisse has lost 59 percent since January 1, while UBS has slumped 69 percent.

Separately, Nomura, the Japanese bank that earlier this year bought the Asian, European and Middle Eastern operations of Lehman Brothers, whose collapse in mid-September triggered a dramatic escalation in the current crisis, announced it would eliminate 1,000 jobs in London.

That cut amounts to about one-fifth of the bank’s London workforce, and will also hit some former Lehman employees, Bloomberg News reported. Nomura last month had said it had no plans to slash jobs.

Others banks, like Goldman Sachs and JPMorgan have already announced significant layoffs, while Citigroup’s announcement that it would cut 52,000 jobs sent shock waves throughout the already shaken financial world last month.

By BETTINA WASSENER

Published: December 4, 2008

Credit Suisse announced Thursday it would cut 5,300 jobs — 11 percent of its global workforce and Nomura of Japan said that it planned 1,000 job cuts at its London office as the financial crisis and economic downturn intensifies.

The cuts add to the tens of thousands of job losses in the global financial sector in recent months as the crisis that began with U.S. subprime mortgage meltdown last year worsened.

Credit Suisse said in a statement in Zurich that it had losses of about 3 billion Swiss francs, or $2.5 billion, in October and November, and the job losses, most of which will be made in the first half of 2009, are designed to reduce costs by 2 billion francs. Most of the cuts will come at the ailing investment banking unit.

“In light of Credit Suisse’s 2008 performance to date,” the bank said in a statement, the bank’s chairman, chief executive officer and the head of its investment bank will forego bonuses this year.

Credit Suisse shares initially fell on the news, but were 1.2 percent higher by mid-morning. Its rival UBS, which has also announced job cuts, was 3.9 precent up. So far this year, the two banks’ shares are sharply lower, in line with banks around the globe. Credit Suisse has lost 59 percent since January 1, while UBS has slumped 69 percent.

Separately, Nomura, the Japanese bank that earlier this year bought the Asian, European and Middle Eastern operations of Lehman Brothers, whose collapse in mid-September triggered a dramatic escalation in the current crisis, announced it would eliminate 1,000 jobs in London.

That cut amounts to about one-fifth of the bank’s London workforce, and will also hit some former Lehman employees, Bloomberg News reported. Nomura last month had said it had no plans to slash jobs.

Others banks, like Goldman Sachs and JPMorgan have already announced significant layoffs, while Citigroup’s announcement that it would cut 52,000 jobs sent shock waves throughout the already shaken financial world last month.

Credit Suisse Cuts 5,300 Jobs

By BETTINA WASSENER

Published: December 4, 2008

Credit Suisse announced Thursday it would cut 5,300 jobs — 11 percent of its global workforce and Nomura of Japan said that it planned 1,000 job cuts at its London office as the financial crisis and economic downturn intensifies.

The cuts add to the tens of thousands of job losses in the global financial sector in recent months as the crisis that began with U.S. subprime mortgage meltdown last year worsened.

Credit Suisse said in a statement in Zurich that it had losses of about 3 billion Swiss francs, or $2.5 billion, in October and November, and the job losses, most of which will be made in the first half of 2009, are designed to reduce costs by 2 billion francs. Most of the cuts will come at the ailing investment banking unit.

“In light of Credit Suisse’s 2008 performance to date,” the bank said in a statement, the bank’s chairman, chief executive officer and the head of its investment bank will forego bonuses this year.

Credit Suisse shares initially fell on the news, but were 1.2 percent higher by mid-morning. Its rival UBS, which has also announced job cuts, was 3.9 precent up. So far this year, the two banks’ shares are sharply lower, in line with banks around the globe. Credit Suisse has lost 59 percent since January 1, while UBS has slumped 69 percent.

Separately, Nomura, the Japanese bank that earlier this year bought the Asian, European and Middle Eastern operations of Lehman Brothers, whose collapse in mid-September triggered a dramatic escalation in the current crisis, announced it would eliminate 1,000 jobs in London.

That cut amounts to about one-fifth of the bank’s London workforce, and will also hit some former Lehman employees, Bloomberg News reported. Nomura last month had said it had no plans to slash jobs.

Others banks, like Goldman Sachs and JPMorgan have already announced significant layoffs, while Citigroup’s announcement that it would cut 52,000 jobs sent shock waves throughout the already shaken financial world last month.

Credit Suisse Heads Back to the Chopping Block

By MARK DeCAMBRE
June 20, 2008 -- Credit Suisse is expected to hand out more pink slips in investment banking, The Post has learned.
The Swiss investment bank is set to wield the ax in areas that include high-yield sales and trading as well as leveraged loans, due to slumping activity, according to people familiar with the situation.
While the exact scope and timing could not be learned, one person familiar with the plan described this round of layoffs as cutting "muscle, not just fat."
A spokesman at Credit Suisse in New York declined to comment.
Credit Suisse eliminated about 325 jobs last fall and this year has slashed more than 1,000 jobs.
The firm, run by American-born CEO Brady Dougan, has roughly 19,000 investment-banking staffers worldwide and has been steadily trimming its staff in the UK and in the US amid the mortgage crisis.
The layoff plans at Credit Suisse come as Washington Mutual, already reeling from mortgage-related losses, said yesterday that it will layoff 1,200 employees in Florida, California, Illinois and Texas.
Bad bets at brokerage firms and big banks have led to 83,000 job cuts so far.
Goldman Sach's financial analyst Christopher Malmer predicted that Credit Suisse could face a writedown of more than $1 billion when it reports its second-quarter earnings.

More Signs of Employment Plunge

Leh Chrysler, Aon, and others jump on the layoff bandwagon.
Stephen Taub
CFO.com | US
November 01, 2007

Corporate layoffs continued to proliferate this week, but are they enough to make the unemployment rate surge? It depends on what data you look at.

The Labor Department reported Thursday that the number of people who filed initial claims for unemployment benefits fell more than expected last week. In addition, the Associated Press reported that economists expect the September unemployment rate to remain at 4.7 percent when it is disclosed on Friday.

However, the four-week average of new claims for unemployment benefits rose to a six-month high.

A number of companies have recently announced major layoffs, creating a new pool of people who will apply for jobless benefits over the next few weeks.

On Thursday Chrysler announced that it will eliminate shifts at five North American assembly plants which, combined with other volume-related manufacturing actions, will lop off 8,500 to 10,000 hourly jobs through 2008. The company also will reduce salaried employment by 1,000 and contract employment by 37 percent. These actions are in addition to 13,000 jobs eliminated by the company’s three-year Recovery and Transformation Plan announced in February.

Also on Thursday, Aon said it will eliminate 2,700 jobs as part of a larger restructuring plan, and The Wall Street Journal reported that Fidelity Investments is expected to lay off 200 employees on that day.

Earlier this week, struggling Alcatel-Lucent said it would cut 4,000 jobs. The company previously announced 12,500 layoffs. And last week CFO.com reported that Novartis is shedding 1,260 jobs, General Motors 1,000, AOL 750, Amgen 675, GDX Automotive 800, and Interstate Brands 882.

These announcements come on the heels of a string of layoff announcements from a number of financial services giants.

About one month ago, UBS said it would cut about 1,500 jobs, or 7 percent of its investment banking work force. Credit Suisse said it would lay off 170 more employees, mostly in its New York mortgage-backed securities division. Morgan Stanley said it was planning to lay off 600 workers, Lehman is shedding more than 2,000 mortgage employees, and HSBC canned about 750 people from its subprime unit.

And if more companies like Merrill Lynch take big write-offs from mortgage- and other investment-related losses, you can be sure there will be many more people receiving pink slips over the next few weeks and months.


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JPMorgan to Layoff Employees in Fixed Income Units, Person Says

By Elizabeth Hester

Oct. 11 (Bloomberg) -- JPMorgan Chase & Co., the third- largest U.S. bank, is eliminating as much as 10 percent of the jobs in groups that financed leveraged buyouts and packaged debt into securities, a person familiar with the situation said.

The two units are part of the New York-based firm's investment banking division, which employed 25,356 people as of June 30, according to the company's quarterly report.

``We are making modest staff reductions in areas where we expect lower volumes going forward, including leveraged finance and structured credit,'' spokesman Brian Marchiony said.

JPMorgan is following UBS AG and Credit Suisse Group, Switzerland's two largest banks, which said this month they would eliminate 1,820 jobs after a global credit market contraction led investors to shun high-risk, high-yield debt. Analysts at Sanford C. Bernstein estimated in an Oct. 5 report that JPMorgan, led by Chief Executive Officer Jamie Dimon, may have to write down leveraged loan and mortgage-related holdings by about $2 billion.

``The boom times are over and they're taking actions to get out in front of the numbers,'' said John Challenger, chief executive officer of Chicago job placement firm Challenger Gray & Christmas. ``Jamie Dimon doesn't defer his actions and he's quick to make changes when results aren't there.''

In the first nine months of the year, JPMorgan was the third-largest underwriter of structured debt such as asset-backed securities, collateralized debt obligations and residential and commercial mortgage bonds, according to Asset-Backed Alert.

Credit Suisse, UBS

The bank sold $134 billion of the debt, about $1 billion less than New York-based Citigroup Inc. and within $400 million of Frankfurt-based Deutsche Bank AG, the industry newsletter said.

Credit Suisse said Oct. 2 it would cut about 170 jobs in its investment banking unit, about half in fixed-income. Earlier, the firm eliminated 150 positions from its mortgage-backed securities department.

UBS is shedding 1,500 jobs after a third-quarter loss, including about 70 U.S. employees who work with mortgage-backed, asset-backed and collateralized debt obligations.

JPMorgan shares fell 25 cents to $46.66 today in New York Stock Exchange composite trading. They're down 3.4 percent this year. The firm is slated to report quarterly earnings Oct. 17.

To contact the reporter on this story: Elizabeth Hester in New York at ehester@bloomberg.net .
Last Updated: October 11, 2007 17:30 EDT


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JOBS MELTDOWN HITS THE STREET

By PAUL THARP

October 4, 2007 -- Wall Street's bloodbath has arrived in earnest with jobs cuts soaring nearly four-fold this year to more than 130,000.

Analysts blame the housing recession for about half those jobs, with Bear Stearns becoming the latest victim yesterday by firing 310 employees in its mortgage operations.

Bear Stearns is also folding together its Encore Credit and Bear Stearns Residential Mortgage units, where total payrolls have been slashed this year by about 40 percent.

Bear Stearns' latest cuts followed a string of layoffs at Wall Street's giants including Morgan Stanley, Lehman Brothers, Merrill Lynch and Credit Suisse totaling nearly 4,000 since the summer, many in the firms' mortgage operations.

A report yesterday by Challenger, Gray & Christmas, which tracks layoffs, said one of every six jobs eliminated across the nation in September was a result of the housing recession and mortgage meltdown.

Hardest hit was the financial services industry, where firings were three times higher than the next highest sector of automotive, and up dramatically from a year earlier. The report said firings in financial services climbed in the first nine months this year to more than 130,000 up from 34,903 a year ago.

"Financial firms cannot cut their payrolls fast enough, particularly in the mortgage lending sector," said John Challenger, CEO of the firm.

He said Wall Street's "heaviest job cutting has occurred over the last two months as home values fall and foreclosures continue to climb."

He also sees a bleaker holiday period for Wall Street and the New York economy that depends on spending and taxes from bonuses, which totaled a record $36 billion last year but are expected to be down this year amid profit wipeouts.

"Even if the worst of the cuts is over, as some are saying, we could continue to see heavy job cuts in the financial sector through the end of the year."

One of Wall Street's biggest bloodbaths came in the 2001 with nearly 2 million layoffs.