Morgan Stanley to Cut 580 Jobs Across New York Offices

Morgan Stanley will cut 580 jobs at four Manhattan offices, the company said in a filing with New York State's Department of Labor on Tuesday.

The filing, known as a "WARN" notice, is required under the state's Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act. Morgan Stanley filed the notice after announcing plans in mid-December to cut 1,600 jobs across all geographic locations and seniority levels.

The cuts in New York will come from the investment bank's offices at 1221 Avenue of Americas, 1 New York Plaza, 1585 Broadway and 750 Seventh Avenue, according to the notice.

Morgan Stanley cited economic reasons for the job cuts, which come amid a sharp decline in investment banking and trading revenue across Wall Street.

Analysts expect Morgan Stanley to report a loss for the fourth quarter, due to a $1.8 billion charge related to a settlement with bond insurer MBIA Inc. They expect the bank to report revenue of $6.48 billion, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S, which would represent a decline of 25 percent from the year-ago period.

Morgan Stanley in Baltimore

Morgan Stanley & Co. plans to cut 1,600 jobs in early 2012 but it’s unknown if the impact will reach Baltimore.

The investment bank is not providing a breakdown of where the job losses will occur. The cuts represent around 2 percent of Morgan Stanley’s work force.

“As we conduct our year-end performance management process and evaluate the right size of the franchise for 2012, we anticipate the elimination of approximately 1,600 positions across the firm globally impacting all job levels, to take place early in the first quarter of 2012.” Sandra Hernandez, a company spokeswoman, said in a statement.

Morgan Stanley (NYSE: MS) has a major facility at Harbor Point where workers support several of the company’s business units, including wealth management and global investment banking.
Morgan Stanley employed 508 people in Baltimore as of 2010, according to the Baltimore Development Corp.

Citigroup Said to Cut 95 London Jobs in Markets Business

Citigroup Inc. (C), the third-biggest U.S. bank by assets, is cutting about 95 jobs in its markets business in London to reduce costs, two people with knowledge of the plan said.

The cutbacks, part of the 4,500 reductions announced this week, are taking place today in fixed income, currencies, rates and commodities, as well as equities, said the people, who declined to be identified because the talks are private. Citigroup officials in London declined to comment.

Financial firms globally have announced more than 200,000 job losses this year, up from about 58,000 last year and 174,000 in 2009, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Citigroup Chief Executive Officer Vikram Pandit is cutting staff as banks prepare for regulations on minimum capital levels and the European sovereign-debt crisis persists, threatening revenue from trading and investment banking.

Bank of America Corp. (BAC) CEO Brian T. Moynihan said in September that the Charlotte, North Carolina-based lender plans to cut 30,000 jobs in the next few years.

Credit Suisse Group AG (CSGN) said last month it would eliminate 1,500 jobs after its investment bank posted its first quarterly loss since 2008 in the third quarter. BNP Paribas (BNP) SA, France’s biggest bank, said in the same month that it will trim about 1,400 jobs at its securities unit, with most coming from the lender’s capital markets and structured-finance teams.

Morgan Stanley to cut 1,600 jobs

(Reuters) - Morgan Stanley (MS) will cut 1,600 employees in the first quarter, the bank said on Thursday, as it trims costs in a difficult period for trading and banking revenue.

The job cuts will come across all staff levels and geographic areas, spokesman Mark Lake said, including investment banking, trading and back-office functions.

Morgan Stanley is one of the last big Wall Street banks to announce major job cuts as analysts have begun slashing fourth-quarter earnings estimates.

Other banks, including Goldman Sachs Group Inc (GS), JPMorgan Chase & Co (JPM), Bank of America Corp (BAC) and Citigroup Inc (C) have already outlined plans to cut thousands of jobs this year. Morgan Stanley had kept firings limited to several hundred underperforming financial advisers earlier in 2011, but is now extending the cuts to banking and trading.

The cuts represent less than 2 percent of Morgan Stanley's workforce at September 30 and come as the European debt crisis continues to add stress to the markets.

Trading and dealmaking volumes have been hurt by volatile markets. At the same time, the value of securities banks hold for investments, clients or market-making purposes have declined, further hitting revenue and earnings.

Morgan Stanley is likely to report a loss in the fourth quarter, according to analyst reports this week, due to a special $1.2 billion charge the bank announced this week, related to a settlement with the bond insurer MBIA Inc (MBI).

Even excluding that charge, Morgan Stanley will earn just 15 cents per share for the fourth quarter, Atlantic Equities analyst Richard Staite predicted in a report on Thursday. That compares with 41 cents per share in the year-ago period.

Air France to cut 2,000 jobs

PARIS (Reuters) - A recruitment freeze at Franco-Dutch carrier Air France-KLM (AIRF.PA) will lead to 2,000 job cuts in 2012 as the carrier looks to save about 800 million euros ($1.04 billion) annually over the next three years, French economic daily La Tribune reported on Wednesday.

The airline, which is 15.7 percent-owned by the French state and 9.8 percent-owned by employees, spends about a third of its revenue on staff, its biggest expense, compared with about a quarter for Lufthansa (LHAG.DE).

The 2,000 cuts would go alongside more than 4,000 positions that have not been renewed over the last 15 months, the paper said, citing several sources.
It said the hiring freeze plan, which would be across all departments, will be presented to the board of directors on January 11.

Credit Agricole SA To Cut 2,350 Global Jobs

Dow Jones reported that Credit Agricole SA is to cut 2,350 jobs around the world, including 850 positions in France, mainly at its Cacib investment bank, the Force Ouvriere union said. 

At Cacib, 1,750 jobs will be cut globally, including 550 in France. The Bank's consumer credit branch, CACF, will see 600 jobs cut, half in France and half in the rest of the world.

AstraZeneca to cut U.S. sales force 24%

AstraZeneca PLC (AZN) said it would cut its U.S. sales force by about 24% by eliminating about 1,150 leadership and sales-representative positions, as the drug maker expands a years-long effort to pare staff and save costs.

The company said the reduction was additional to its ongoing restructuring program unveiled early last year, when it said it would cut thousands more jobs over coming years because of expectations for sliding profit and revenue-growth challenges. Wednesday's U.S. sales force cuts are also additional to previously announced efficiency plans in the company's U.S. business.

Cargill cuts 2,000 jobs

Cargill has announced that it is to cut up to 2,000 jobs – around 1.5% of its workforce. The Minnesota-based company cited the continuing weak global economy as the reason for its decision.

Over the weekend, Cargill said it would reduce its 138,000 workforce over the next six months. The reduction in force will not be applied evenly across the company, with cuts being greater in Cargill’s poorer-performing businesses.

“As economic conditions change, so must we,” said Mike Fernandez, corporate vice president of Cargill Corporate Affairs. “These are difficult decisions but are necessary to better position the company for continued growth.” The company had previously (quarter ended August 2011) reported earnings down by 66%, noting the impact of economic uncertainty and the volatility of commodity markets.

Of the announcement the Financial Times said, “It is too early to say whether Cargill’s bearishness is justified. But it is worth noting that Cargill is a privately-owned company – still controlled by the MacMillan and Cargill families, descendants of the founders who set up the group in 1865 – so it does not feel obliged to put as brave a face on in a bad economic environment as its publicly-listed rivals.”

Cargill has for some time been publicly voicing its concerns about the worldwide economic situation. Analysts point out that the diverse nature of Cargill’s commodity trading business gives it an unusually acute insight into a variety of world markets – again, reinforcing the credibility of its public pronouncements. Other commodity traders have been more bullish.

Citigroup to eliminate 4,500 jobs, says CEO Pandit

NEW YORK (CNNMoney) -- Citigroup will lay off roughly 4,500 employees over the next few months, CEO Vikram Pandit said Tuesday, as Wall Street continues to bleed jobs amid tough economic times.


Speaking at the Goldman Sachs Financial Services Conference in New York on Tuesday afternoon, Pandit said the cuts would come over the next few quarters.

Citi (C) will book a charge of approximately $400 million in the fourth quarter of this year due to severance payments and other expenses associated with the layoffs.

"As part of our ongoing efforts to control expenses, we are making targeted headcount reductions in certain businesses and functions across Citi," said Jon Diat, spokesman for Citi, in an email.
Citi employed 267,000 employees worldwide as of September. The company said in November that it was planning layoffs, which a source said at the time were expected to top out around 3,000.
Wall Street's shrinking job pool

The financial services industry has lost more than 200,000 jobs globally this year, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Bank of America (BAC) alone has announced plans to cut 30,000 employees over the next several years.

Year-end bonuses, meanwhile, will decline between 20% and 30% on Wall Street this year, according to compensation consulting firm Johnson Associates. Overall compensation for finance professionals in the United States, Europe, the Middle East and Africa will drop 27% this year, the lowest levels since 2008, according to the Options Group consulting firm

Société Générale Planning New York Job Cuts

PARIS — Société Générale is planning to eliminate a number of jobs in New York, as the financial crisis and a changing global regulatory environment put pressure on its businesses there, a person with direct knowledge of the bank’s plans said Thursday.

The bank, one of the top lenders in France, is scaling back its aircraft, shipping, real estate and leveraged finance businesses, the person said.

‘‘It’s premature to give more information about the headcount,’’ said the person, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the layoffs had not been finalized.

The headquarters of French bank Societe Generale, the country's second largest, at La Defense in Paris.

Wall Street banks, whose profits have been flagging amid global market turmoil and regulatory uncertainty, have been culling their ranks. Goldman Sachs, Bank of America, Citigroup and others have announced thousands of jobs cuts. Their European counterparts, including UBS and Société Générale, have been making similar reductions.

MF Global : 1,066 Brokerage Employees Fired

MF Global Inc.’s workforce of 1,066 broker-dealer employees has been fired effective immediately, the trustee liquidating the unit said.

The former employees will be paid through Nov. 15, according to a statement today from the office of the trustee, James Giddens. As many as 200 former employees are being hired to assist in the liquidation of the broker-dealer, Giddens said.

MF Global Holdings Ltd., which was run by former New Jersey governor and Goldman Sachs Group Inc. co-chairman Jon Corzine, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy Oct. 31 after a $6.3 billion bet on the bonds of some of Europe’s most indebted nations prompted regulator concerns and a credit rating downgrade.

Giddens, overseeing the liquidation of the bankrupt company’s brokerage unit, is managing the subsidiary’s wind-down under the Securities Investor Protection Act. He will try to close the broker-dealer’s New York offices as soon as possible and find cheaper space in the city, according to the statement. The unit’s Chicago offices will stay open as the business is wound down, Giddens said.

The firings were mandated under the SIPA, Giddens said. The action is necessary to “preserve assets and identify and marshal other property to maximize the estate in a manner that is fair to all customers and other creditors,” he said in the statement.

Customer Accounts
About 17,000 in customer account positions and $1.5 billion in account funds have been moved to other future commodity merchants, Giddens said.

“We are saddened by the trustee’s actions today to terminate so many of our colleagues,” Diana DeSocio, an MF Global spokeswoman, said in an e-mailed statement.

The brokerage’s parent listed $39.7 billion in debt and $41 billion in assets in its bankruptcy filing. Owners of the parent company’s senior unsecured debt may get back 10 cents to 30 cents on the dollar without an asset sale, credit-ratings company Fitch Ratings said in a report.

Motorola Mobility Cuts 800 Jobs

Motorola Mobility Holdings Inc., the mobile-phone maker that agreed to be bought by Google Inc. (GOOG), expects $31 million in costs as it cuts 800 jobs, according to a regulatory filing.

The pretax costs include $27 million in severance and $4 million for exiting facilities and will be recorded this quarter, Libertyville, Illinois-based Motorola Mobility said yesterday in a regulatory filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. The moves were approved Oct. 24, the company said.

Motorola Mobility is reining in costs as it prepares to close the planned acquisition by Mountain View, California-based Google. The $12.5 billion deal was announced Aug. 15.

“Motorola Mobility continues to focus on improving its financial performance by taking actions to manage the company’s costs,” Jennifer Weyrauch-Erickson, a spokeswoman for Motorola Mobility, said in a statement. She said the efforts are unrelated to the proposed acquisition.

Whirlpool to cut 5,000 jobs, close Ark. plant

Appliance maker Whirlpool (WHR) plans to cut 5,000 jobs, about 10% of its workforce in North America and Europe, as it faces soft demand and higher costs for materials.

The world's biggest appliance maker also on Friday cut its 2011 earnings outlook drastically and reported third-quarter results that missed expectations, hurt by higher costs and a slowdown in emerging markets. Shares fell 12% in midday trading.

The company, whose brands include Maytag and KitchenAid, has, like other appliance makers, been squeezed by soft U.S. demand since the recession and by rising costs for materials such as steel and copper. Due to its size, Whirlpool's performance provides a window on the economy because it indicates whether consumers are comfortable spending on big-ticket items.

Whirlpool has raised prices to combat higher costs, but demand for items like refrigerators and washing machines remains restrained. Whirlpool is also facing discount pressure from competitors.

To offset slowing North American sales, Whirlpool has turned to emerging markets. But the company said Friday that sales have slowed there, too. The company revised its demand forecast globally. It now expects demand to decline 3% to 5% in North America, in 2011, down from a 1% to 2% prior decline forecast.
It expects flat demand in Europe, the Middle East and Africa, from prior expectations of a 1% to 2% rise in demand.

In Latin America, it now expects demand to be flat to up 5%, from prior expectations of a 5% to 10% increase. And in Asia it expects demand to rise 2% to 4% from earlier expectations of a 4% to 6% increase.
Steep costs and the dour global economy are affecting the entire appliance industry. Swedish appliance maker Electrolux said Friday that its third-quarter net income fell 39% and also cut its forecast for demand in North American and Europe for the year.

Whirlpool jobs to be cut are mostly in North America and Europe. They include 1,200 salaried positions and the closing of the company's plant in Fort Smith, Ark.

The Fort Smith plant shutdown will affect 884 hourly workers and 90 salaried employees. An additional 800 workers were on layoff from the factory and on a recall list.

Whirlpool will also relocate dishwasher production from Neunkirchen, Germany, to Poland in January 2012.
The company, based in Benton Harbor, Mich., expects the moves will save $400 million by the end of 2013. They'll cost $500 million in restructuring costs however, which will be recorded over the next three years, including a $105 million charge in the fourth quarter, $280 million charge in 2012 and $115 million charge in 2013.

Whirlpool's third-quarter net income more than doubled to $177 million, or $2.27 per share, from $79 million, or $1.02 per share. Adjusted earnings of $2.35 per share fell short of analyst expectations for $2.73 per share.
Revenue rose 2% to $4.63 billion, short of expectations for $4.74 billion.
"Our results were negatively impacted by recessionary demand levels in developed countries, a slowdown in emerging markets and high levels of inflation in material costs," CEO Jeff Fettig said.
Unit shipments fell in all regions except Asia, where they rose 4%.

In North America, revenue fell 2% to $2.4 billion, and in Latin America, revenue rose 8% to $1.2 billion.
The company now expects 2011 net income will be $4.75 to $5.25 per share. Its prior guidance was net income would be at the low end of a range between $7.25 and $8.25 per share.

Separately, Whirlpool has complained to authorities that some companies, including Samsung Electronics and LG Electronics, have been selling appliances at less than fair value in the U.S., a practice known as dumping. Whirlpool said the Commerce Department issued a preliminary determination that the companies are violating international trade laws. The investigation is ongoing.

Man Group Doubles Job Cuts

As part of a cost-cutting initiative, Europe's largest hedge fund manager, London-based Man Group, has doubled the number of job cuts.

The firm told investors it has trimmed staff by approximately 20%, which translates into about 400 jobs, or one in five employees. It had initially planned to cut 10% of staff after acquiring hedge fund GLG Partners in October 2010.

A spokesperson told Dow Jones the firm doesn't plan additional job cuts. Man Group has had a tough time of it lately. Investors requested the return of $7.1 billion in capital between late June and late September.
The job cuts will bring the group's headcount to the level it was before it bought GLG. Most of firm's employees are based in London, with the back office and support functions especially feeling the brunt of layoffs. A source familiar with the matter told the Financial Times that traders aren't likely to be laid off.

Capital One hiring 500 in Delaware, getting millions in incentives

Capital One Financial Corp. has committed to expanding its Delaware work force by 500 jobs, state officials said Monday morning.

In June, Capital One announced its plans to acquire Delaware-based ING Direct USA for $9 billion. In August, it said it would acquire HSBC’s domestic credit-card business for $2.6 billion. HSBC’s domestic card business also employs Delawareans.

The 500 jobs announced Monday would be in addition to all of the ING and HSBC employees that would become Capital One employees after the acquisitions.

As part of the expansion agreement, Capital One will receive a Delaware Strategic Fund Job Creation Incentive of $5.6 million and a Capital Improvements and Equipment Cash Incentive equal to 3 percent of the total capital expenditures the bank makes for its new Wilmington facility, up to a maximum rebate of $1.5 million. The funding is contingent on approval by the Delaware Council on Development Finance. Under the agreement, the 500 new jobs must be in place by December 2013.

A Capital One spokesman said the jobs will entail a wide variety of functions including retail banking, information technology, human resources and risk management. Two separate sources familiar with the situation said the jobs will pay an average of at least $135,000.

McLean, Va.-based Capital One (NYSE:COF) is parent to Capital One NA and Capital One Bank (USA) NA. It had $126.1 billion in deposits and $199.8 billion in total assets as of June 30. Capital One NA has about 1,000 branch locations primarily in New York, New Jersey, Texas, Louisiana, Maryland, Virginia, and the District of Columbia.

Banks Announce 100,000 Job Cuts

Banks are shedding jobs worldwide as stricter regulations and a tough second quarter for trading income take their toll on investment banking units in particular.

Bank of America on Monday said it would cut 30,000 jobs and slash annual expenses by $5 billion.

The layoff plan brings staff cuts announced this year or reported to be in the works at U.S. and European banks to just under 100,000, some of them to be lost over three- or four-year programmes.

Many, including Royal Bank of Scotland , Lloyds Banking Group , Citigroup and Bank of America, had already cut thousands of jobs after the financial crisis.

This year's job cut estimates are also likely to be conservative figures, as not all banks trimming teams have publicly announced lay-offs, and the number does not take into account smaller investment banks, boutiques and brokers.

Following is a summary of cuts announced by major banks:

	Jobs to be cut	Total staff*
HSBC	30,000	295,995
BANK OF AMERICA MERRILL LYNCH	30,000	287,839
LLOYDS BANKING GROUP	15,000	103,859
UBS	3,500	65,707
BARCLAYS	3,000	146,100
INTESA SANPAOLO	3,000	101,169
ABN AMRO	2,350	26,161
MONTE DEI PASCHI DI SIENA	c.2,200	31,201
NORDEA	2,000	34,169
ROYAL BANK OF SCOTLAND	c.2,000	148,300
CREDIT SUISSE	2,000	50,700
BANK OF NEW YORK MELLON	1,500	48,900
RABOBANK	1,200	59,000
BANCO POPOLARE	1,120	19,209
GOLDMAN SACHS	1,000	35,500

* According to latest available figure, usually end 2010 or mid-year reports 

UBS to cut 3,500 jobs

UBS will cut about 3,500 jobs as it tries to reduce its annual costs by 2 billion Swiss francs

• Most of the cuts will come from the investment bank business, wealth management and the Swiss bank unit
• It expects to book charges of about CHF550 million as part of the cost reduction plans

ZURICH -- UBS AG UBS -0.58% Tuesday said it will cut around 3,500 jobs as it tries to reduce annual costs by 2 billion Swiss francs ($2.5 billion) in the face weaker earnings, increased regulation and slowing economic growth.

The Swiss banking giant said it expects to incur restructuring charges of around CHF550 million as part of the cost reduction plans, with CHF450 million to be booked mostly in the third quarter of 2011, according to a statement Tuesday.

UBS last month reported second-quarter net profit fell by half and said the increased capital requirements and the stricter regulatory environment in Switzerland, in addition to a worsening economic outlook, mean it is unlikely to meet the three- to five-year profit targets it set in 2009.

UBS's investment bank business will bear the brunt of the job cuts, accounting for 45% of the 3,500 positions to be lost, while the wealth management and Swiss bank unit will account for 35%, it said.

""A surprisingly high proportion of the cuts will be at the wealth management and Swiss banks business, but otherwise there are no big surprises," says Rainer Skierka, an analyst at Bank Sarasin.

Swiss banks are also struggling under the weight of the strong franc, which soared to record highs against the euro and the dollar in recent weeks, prompting the Swiss National Bank to cut interest rates to close to zero, and flood the money market with liquidity to damp investor demand for the currency.

Credit Suisse Group last month said it planned to trim 4% of its workforce to slash spending after disappointing second-quarter results.

Bank of America to slash 3,500 jobs

Bank of America Corp. is planning to cut 3,500 jobs this quarter, the Wall Street Journal reported Friday citing people familiar with the situation. 

The bank will undertake an aggressive overhaul that could result in the elimination of at least 10,000 jobs, according to the report.

BNY Mellon to Cut 1,500 Jobs

BOSTON - Bank of New York Mellon Corp plans to cut about 1,500 jobs, or 3 percent of its workforce, to stem rising expenses.

The job cuts are the latest in the financial industry, as institutions brace for slower-than-expected economic growth.

A spokesman for the New York bank, Kevin Heine, said Wednesday it expects to provide more detail about the job cuts by the end of the year and an exact timetable and the number of layoffs to take place have not been determined.

The bank plans to reduce the total number of layoffs by starting a hiring freeze and through natural turnover, BNY Mellon Chief Executive Robert Kelly said in a statement.
Although the bank's revenue has grown in recent quarters, Kelly said, "expenses have been growing unsustainably faster."

The move is only the latest large layoff by a major bank amid broader economic concerns. Last week Britain's HSBC Holdings Plc said it would cut 30,000 jobs as it pulls back from countries including the United States and Russia.

Other firms have cut smaller numbers of jobs this summer, including BNY Mellon's chief trust bank rival, State Street Corp. On July 19 the Boston company said it would eliminate as many as 850 technology jobs through layoffs and outsourcing.

BNY Mellon had already promised other cost-containment efforts, such as moving employees to lower-cost locations including Pittsburgh; Manchester, England; and India.

Postal Service proposing cutting 120,000 jobs

The financially strapped U.S. Postal Service , facing insolvency as soon as next month, is proposing cutting 120,000 jobs while changing union contracts and employee health and pension benefits.

Facing a second year of losses totaling $8 billion or more, the agency also wants to pull its workers out of the retirement and health benefits plans covering federal workers and set up its own benefit systems.

Congressional approval would be needed for either step, and both could be expected to face severe opposition from postal unions which have contracts that ban layoffs.

The post office has cut 110,000 jobs over the last four years and is currently engaged in eliminating 7,500 administrative staff. In its 2010 annual report, the agency said it had 583,908 career employees.

The loss of mail to the Internet and the decline in advertising caused by the recession have rocked the agency.

Postal officials have said they will be unable to make a $5.5 billion payment to cover future employee health care costs due Sept. 30. It is the only federal agency required to make such a payment but, because of the complex way government finances are counted, eliminating it would make the federal budget deficit appear $5.5 billion larger.

In addition the post office recently said it is considering closing 3,653 post offices, stations and other facilities, about one-10th of its offices around the country, in an effort to save money. Offices under consideration for closing are largely rural with little traffic.

And in June the post office suspended contributions to its employees' pension fund, which it said was overfunded.

In its 2010 annual report the post office reported a loss of more than $8 billion on revenues of $67 billion and expenses of $75 billion.

And even while total mail volume fell from 202 billion items to 170 billion from 2008 to 2010 the number of places the agency has to deliver mail increased by 1.7 million as Americans built new homes, offices and businesses.

RIM to cut 2,000 jobs as iPhone market share grows

Research In Motion Ltd., maker of the BlackBerry smart phone, plans to cut 2,000 jobs, or about a tenth of its workforce, as sales slow amid market share losses to Apple's iPhone.

The reductions, across all functions, are part of a plan to "focus on areas that offer the highest growth opportunities," RIM said Monday. The job cuts will leave the Canadian company with about 17,000 employees.

RIM predicted last month that sales this quarter may drop for the first time in nine years. The company is losing market share in the United States to the iPhone and handsets running Google's Android software, in part because it hasn't introduced a major new BlackBerry model since August. Cheaper Google phones are also making inroads in Latin America, Asia and Europe, threatening the popularity of less expensive BlackBerry models like the Curve.

Monday's announcement "takes care of the expenses and they still need to focus on the revenue side," said Alkesh Shah, an analyst at Evercore Partners Inc. in New York. "They need to find a way to make consumers get excited about RIM products. At this point they haven't gotten there."

While RIM had said June 16 it would cut jobs, the figure of 2,000 "is more significant than previously suggested" by co-CEO Jim Balsillie, said Mike Abramsky, an analyst at RBC Capital Markets in Toronto, who rates RIM "sector perform."

When asked about the restructuring plan by one analyst on a June 16 conference call, Balsillie had said: "I would not call it a restructuring and I think that's just radically mischaracterizing it."

HSBC plans to cut 30,000 jobs

HSBC will shed 30,000 jobs as it retreats from countries where it is struggling to compete, Europe's biggest bank said on Monday after it reported a surprise rise in first-half profit.


HSBC will axe 30,000 jobs as it slashes costs and retreats from countries such as Russia, Poland and the U.S., where it is struggling to compete, Europe's biggest bank said after reporting a surprise rise in first-half profit.

HSBC's shares rose as much as 5 percent as first-half pretax profits of $11.5 billion were up 3 percent on a year ago, beating the $10.9 billion average in a Reuters poll.

The London-based bank said it had cut 5,000 jobs after restructuring operations in Latin America, the United States, Britain, France and the Middle East and that it would cut another 25,000 between now and the end of 2013.

That equates to 10 percent of HSBC's 296,000 workforce. The bank's 110,000 staff in Europe and North America will bear the brunt of the job cuts.

UBS to Axe 5,000 Jobs, Credit Suisse to Cut 1,000

ZURICH - UBS is set to cut around 5,000 jobs to save 1 billion Swiss francs ($1.20 billion) while rival Credit Suisse is planning to axe about 1,000 staff, Swiss newspapers reported on Thursday.

Citing an unnamed UBS insider, the Tages-Anzeiger daily said the precise details of the cost-cutting programme still had to be agreed and approved by the board, but should be announced in conjunction with the bank's second-quarter results on July 26.

The newspaper had already reported on Tuesday that thousands of jobs were threatened at UBS and rival Credit Suisse , without giving precise figures.

UBS declined to comment but wealth management head Juerg Zeltner was quoted last week as saying the bank needs to rein in costs given tough market conditions while chairman Kaspar Villiger also said cost cuts were inevitable.
Meanwhile, Credit Suisse is set to cut about 1,000 jobs to save 800 million francs, the Handelszeitung newspaper reported on Thursday, also citing an unnamed insider. The paper said the bank would announce its plans along with its results on July 28.

A Credit Suisse spokesman declined to comment beyond reiterating the bank's standard position that it is always reviewing resource deployment and adjusting its business to market conditions and the needs of its clients.

The Handelszeitung quoted an insider as saying UBS was planning to save about 90 million francs annually by closing 27 offices in Zurich and concentrating staff in five big centres.
Switzerland's biggest bank, which had to be rescued by the state in 2008 after massive losses on toxic assets, slashed staff to around 64,000 from around 78,000 before the financial crisis, but it expanded again in the last year to over 65,000.

Personnel costs have risen sharply as UBS has increased fixed salaries to attract and retain staff given its relatively low bonuses, capped after public outrage during the crisis. It has also hired aggressively in the growth markets of Asia.

A tough second quarter for investment banking earnings, dragged down by sovereign debt woes in Europe and trading jitters, is prompting many banks to cut jobs.

Like other global banks, UBS and Credit Suisse are suffering from sluggish markets, but they face the added burden of high cost bases in Switzerland as the safe-haven Swiss franc soars to new record highs against the dollar and the euro.

The strong franc, boosted by concerns over high government debts in the euro zone and the United States, has prompted many Swiss companies to warn their margins are suffering.
UBS has already said it will cut about 500 technical staff, or nearly 6 percent of its IT workforce.
Analysts said UBS is likely to cut staff at its Investment Products and Services unit, set up in 2010 to provide products to the bank's wealthy clients, where there have been concerns about efficiency after more than 2,000 staff were hired.

Merck plans to cut thousands more jobs

Merck & Co Inc. plans to cut another 12,000 to 13,000 jobs by late 2015 to wring out additional annual cost savings of up to $1.5 billion that can be plowed back into research and deal making.

The No. 2 U.S. drugmaker eliminated 12,465 positions last year, offset by almost 6,500 new hires, reducing its workforce to 91,000 employees as of June 30.

The company, which also reported quarterly earnings in line with forecasts, said on Friday it would cut its workforce by an additional 12 percent to 13 percent from the 100,000 employees it had at the end of 2009 after buying Schering-Plough Corp.

"The new phase of restructuring will create an additional $1.3 billion to $1.5 billion in annual cost savings," company spokesman David Caouette said.

Job cuts will come largely from administrative positions, consolidation of offices and sale or closure of manufacturing sites.

"I think we're going to see other firms continue to expand their cost-reduction programs," Morningstar analyst Damien Conover said, pointing to increasingly difficult reimbursement environments in Europe and the United States.

Canadian Banks to Hire As Wall Street Firms Lay Off

Canadian banks, which brought on bankers displaced by the 2008 financial crisis, have accelerated staffing plans this year to capitalize on Wall Street's woes. The investment banking arms of the Big Five -- Royal Bank of Canada, Toronto-Dominion Bank, Bank of Nova Scotia, Bank of Montreal and Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce -- plan hires for M&A, advisory, underwriting and other investment banking work, according to recruiters, analysts and bank spokespeople.

"Canadian firms are no longer looking at themselves as being a little firm north of the border," said Bill Vlaad, the founder of Vlaad and Company, a Toronto-based capital markets recruiter. "They have a defined presence in the U.S. and they're willing to look for good talent."

Vlaad said his firm has had more phone calls in the second quarter asking for U.S. professionals than in the previous seven quarters combined.

One reason for the hiring: Canadian banks emerged from the debt crisis in better shape than American banks. They took on less risk and were subject to tighter regulations.

The Canadian government required banks to meet a leverage test that maintained the ratio of total assets to total capital at 20 to 1. Many American banks, on the other hand, had been levered 30 to 1, or in the case of Merrill Lynch, 40 to 1, as a result of a 2004 Securities and Exchange Commission rule that allowed banks to more than double their leverage ratios.

Bank of Montreal Capital Markets is continuing to grow headcount after hiring during the U.S. financial crisis, said Perry Hoffmeister, head of U.S. investment and corporate banking, BMO Capital Markets.

"Our view was Wall Street's landscape is changing," Hoffmeister said. "There's an opportunity for a bank like BMO to build its wholesale business. Not only because there are great bankers who wouldn't be available otherwise, but there are fewer competitors. We believe we're taking share and on that basis we intend to keep growing."



Who They Will Hire

Admittedly, Canadian banks won't bring on thousands and provide a job for every laid-off Wall Streeter.

"The number of employees at U.S. firms dwarf Canadian headcount," Vlaad said. While the investment banking business at JPMorgan employs around 26,500 people, the average Big Five bank has between 1,000 to 6,000 employees in that division.

Firms are looking for bankers with specific knowledge of resource-based industries such as mining, oil and gas, pulp and paper and energy sectors, which are the bread-and-butter of Canadian banking, Vlaad said.

Banks are also focused on recruiting senior, seasoned talent. BMO's Hoffmeister said that of the 203 bankers added to his group since 2009, 134 have been senior bankers and traders at the director and managing director level.

"They want senior players who can gain client attention," Vlaad said. "They're looking for generals, not foot soldiers."

Hiring can be expected to take place across both the U.S. and Canada. BMO, for example, will recruit in Chicago and New York, its largest offices, as well as in Houston, Boston and San Francisco, Hoffmeister said. Nearly half of BMO Capital Market's staff is U.S.-based.

The demand doesn't look like it will abate any time soon.

"If you're in a strong position in Canada and right across the border there's an opportunity in the investment banking market to build out a capital markets business, it makes a lot of sense to do that," Hoffmeister said. "That's why BMO made a strategic decision to expand capital markets. The landscape had changed, and the quality of bankers willing to move was pretty great."

CIBC is thinking along the same lines. A source familiar with the matter said that the bank will continue to pursue a hiring strategy consistent with the growth opportunities in the investment banking arm the bank is currently experiencing. Over the past three years, CIBC has added talent to its offices in Canada, New York, London and Asia. The bank declined to comment.



Financial Crisis Hiring Surge

Having emerged from the financial crisis in relatively stable positions, Canadian banks were able to bring on staff.

Scotia Capital, the investment banking division of Bank of Nova Scotia, grew to 1,776 employees in the second quarter 2011, up from 1,553 in the second quarter of 2009, the official end of the recession, according to the National Bureau of Economic Research.

Toronto Dominion has added around 400 employees to its investment banking division since the second quarter 2009.

BMO grew to 2,043 employees in the second quarter 2011 from 1,821 in the second quarter 2009.

CIBC employs 1,144 in its investment banking division as of the second quarter 2011, compared to the 1,089 it had in second quarter 2009.

RBC Capital Market's U.S. investment banking staff has grown by more than 25% over the past three years, the most recent information that was available. The unit now has 370 bankers who work in the U.S.



Canadian Hiring Freeze

While Canadian banks have maintained a stronger position than their American counterparts coming out of the financial crisis, they haven't been immune to some of the market forces dragging down business this year.

Like U.S. and European banks, Canadian banks are experiencing low trading volumes, said Michael Goldberg, a financial services analyst and vice president at Desjardins Securities, the brokerage unit of Desjardins Group, the Quebec-based financial group. "They had been building up desks to grow the trading side of the business, but I don't think they will want to do that to the same extent now."

One managing director at a Big Five bank who did not want to be named said he had seen several trading teams imported from the U.S. over the past several years, but that he doesn't expect the trend to continue in light of the sluggish trading activity.

"The decline in [trading] revenue is prevalent on both sides of the border," he said. "It's a function of reduced hedging volume plus a general lack of risk taking, not to mention much narrower bid/offer spreads."

While banks won't add to trading teams, they will lay off lower-performing employees and replace them with top producers.

"If there's going to be any activity in sales and trading, it will be to increase the quality of existing teams," Vlaad said. "They're going to get rid of their bottom tier and upgrade their talent."

Canadian banks also won't be hiring tech bankers. "Canadians want the meat-and-potatoes businesses, things they can touch and feel," Vlaad said. "That's how they establish their business. They don't want high tech and you won't see Canadian banks with huge businesses in Silicon Valley. They don't have that risk appetite."

Laid Off On Wall Street: Lowest-Paid Workers Losing Jobs

NEW YORK -- Layoffs have returned to Wall Street as investment banks bemoaning economic malaise and disappointing revenues are moving to pare their payrolls, by far their largest expense.

Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley have announced plans to eliminate hundreds of employees, UBS and Credit Suisse are reportedly preparing to cut thousands of jobs and Barclays Capital has already imposed two rounds of layoffs this year.

But as banks again resort to pink slips, they appear inclined to spare the most generously compensated executives -- the people who enjoyed the biggest gains from the bubble in mortgage-related investments that savaged the economy -- while instead dismissing less-expensive employees.

"Wall Street is a cutthroat business. That's how the capital market system works," said Sung Won Sohn, a former Wells Fargo chief economist who is now a finance professor at California State University Channel Islands. "The more seasoned, experienced, higher-paid people have a lot more connections and contacts. That is very, very valuable. Whereas junior, younger people are more replaceable."

In June, Barclays Capital cut employees, including first-year analysts who had been hired last year out of college to work in the New York investment banking division, a person familiar with the situation told The Huffington Post. Morgan Stanley released plans earlier this year to lay off up to 300 workers in its retail brokerage, including trainees. At Goldman Sachs, employees losing their jobs will include "junior people," the firm's chief financial officer said during a conference call this week.

But being seasoned doesn't provide a job guarantee, either. In the end, the decision comes down to the company's bottom line, and whether an employee is capable of fattening it.

"Length of time at the firm doesn't matter, it doesn't help you," said Kim Woodle, 54, who was laid off from his job as a computer programmer at Morgan Stanley in 2009, in the midst of the Great Recession.

Boston: State Street Plans to Lay Off Hundreds in IT

State Street Cuts 850 Tech Jobs

State Street announced plans to cut 558 technology jobs in Massachusetts.

The Boston-based financial services firm said it will eliminate 530 of the positions over the next 18 to 20 months, while another 320 employees will be transferred to IBM or Wipro.

State Street calls the job cuts part of an “IT transformation.” Late last year, the company unveiled a massive cost-cutting plan that envisioned eliminating 1,400 positions, including 400 in Massachusetts. The company’s Bay State head count is about 12,600. Worldwide, the company employs 29,450 people.

Cisco Systems Inc. may cut about 5,000 jobs in August

NEW YORK (AP) -- Networking gear maker Cisco Systems Inc. may cut about 5,000 jobs in August in one of its largest work force reductions, Gleacher & Co. analyst Brian Marshall said on Monday.

Marshall said that while difficult, the move is "required in order to maintain the `competitiveness'" of Cisco going forward. Cutting 5,000 jobs would mean a nearly 7 percent work force reduction for Cisco, which has about 73,400 employees worldwide. Marshall said the reduction would be similar to large job cuts the company had in 2001 and in 2002.

Cisco said in May that it's set to eliminate thousands of jobs as part of its broader plan to cut costs and increase profits. CEO John Chambers said he wants to cut annual expenses by $1 billion, or about 6 percent. He did not say how many jobs the company was planning to cut, mainly through an early retirement program.

Cisco spokeswoman Kristin Carvell said the company will provide more details on cost cuts, including layoffs, when it announces quarterly earnings Aug. 10.

Marshall said this would be the third major initiative of Cisco's restructuring program in the past six months. The company restructured its consumer business in April, killing off its Flip video camcorder business. In May, it reorganized its management structure.

"While we view this as positive, we need the company to reset its long-term financial targets," wrote Marshall, who rates Cisco's shares "Neutral" with a target price of $17. A fourth and "necessary step," he said, would be a formal lowering of Cisco's financial targets. Cisco currently expects annual revenue to grow by 12 percent to 17 percent.

Goldman to Lay Off 230 Employees in New York

NEW YORK - Goldman Sachs Group Inc plans to lay off 230 employees in New York because of economic conditions, according to a state filing on Wednesday.
* Bank cites economic conditions in govt filing

* Cuts will come during fourth and first quarters

The layoffs will take place during the fourth quarter of 2011 and first quarter of 2012, the filing said.

Companies based in New York that have at least 50 employees are required to notify the state Department of Labor if they plan to reduce the local workforce by a significant number. They must file "WARN notices" 90 days ahead of the planned reductions.

Goldman and other large Wall Street banks have started reducing their workforces to cut costs amid the slowdown in economic and market activity. Several large Wall Street banks have begun laying off employees due to weak trading volumes and regulations that limit their ability to engage in certain activities, such as proprietary trading.

Goldman's New York layoffs represent less than 1 percent of its 35,700 employees as of Dec. 31. Goldman is still hiring employees in growth markets like China, India and Brazil, President Gary Cohn said at a conference earlier this month.

Chicago: Walgreen to add 600 city jobs

Chicago: Walgreen Co. and Mayor Rahm Emanuel announced plans Wednesday for dozens of new food outlets as the retailer upgrades stores and expands in Chicago, adding 600 jobs in the city over the next two years.
 
In a news conference at a South Side Walgreens store, Mr. Emanuel and company officials announced the huge drugstore chain will add food products to roughly 40 additional stores in so-called food deserts, up from 11 currently that sell a wider range of groceries.

The deal includes no city incentives, according to Mr. Emanuel's office

The Deerfield company also is ramping up its downtown e-commerce and information technology office.
 
Each step will add about 300 positions when combined with at least five new stores to be opened in the next two years.
 
“Walgreens is proud of our historic roots in Chicago and pleased to take our place in the city to a new level,” President and CEO Greg Wasson said.
 
Filling food deserts in inner-city neighborhoods has been a top priority for Mr. Emanuel.

In his first weeks in office, he also has been busily announcing a variety of job expansions here, some brand-new and some that already were in the works. On Tuesday, he announced that Allscripts Healthcare Solutions Inc. would add 300 people to its Chicago office.

BlackBerry Developers Head For Exit

Research In Motion has been accused of failing to connect with ordinary smartphone consumers, but there's another set of personal relationships that are a liability for the company. Turns out that app developers are abandoning BlackBerry to focus their energies on where the growth is: the iPhone and Android operating systems.

Developers say that the variety of BlackBerry models and specifications make creating apps a lot of work with little payoff. One app maker says that he gets 20 times more downloads from iPhone users than BlackBerry users. Still, it's BlackBerry's anemic growth that is driving developers away, not complicated requirements. The once-dominant handsets accounted for only 13% of global smartphone sales last year, compared to 20% last year. Meanwhile Google and Apple continue to gobble up more and more market share.

It's just another round of bad news for RIM, which last week warned that its quarterly revenue could see a drop for the first time in nearly a decade. The company is in the midst of making unspecified layoffs among its 17,500-member staff.

Halliburton Will Expand Its Workforce by 15,000 in 2011

Hiring at Halliburton Co. is in full swing. The Houston-based energy equipment and services company expects to add 15,000 employees by the end of the year, a jump of about 25% from its current staff, the company said.

In fact, the entire oil and gas industry is booming, and the hiring will include people with careers in technology, marketing and sales.

"2011 seems to be a return to the glory days with regards to oil and gas hiring," said Mark Guest, president of global job board OilCareers.com, in an email. "There is demand for increased technology, and in turn, sales and marketing."

Halliburton, which has a staff of more than 60,000 globally, has already hired about 5,000 people this year in a wide range of jobs, including manufacturing and engineering positions. The company anticipates hiring another 10,000 employees before the year is out, said company spokesperson Tara Mulee Agard. She didn't specify the exact nature of the positions.

Revenue is surging. Halliburton reached a record of $5.3 billion in revenue in the first quarter of 2011, chief executive officer Dave Lesar said in a company statement regarding the company's earning release in April. Increased demand in the United States accounted for the more than 40% increase from a year ago.

Uncertainty over the economic recovery is driving up the price of crude oil and boosting needs for equipment and services, Guest said. More than half of the number of open job postings for the top oilfield service providers are located in the U.S.

Job hunters should focus on key companies if they are looking to get in on the expansion, according to data from OilCareers.com. Halliburton, Schlumberger Ltd., Baker Hughes Inc. and Weatherford International Ltd. are the driving forces behind the hiring.

Halliburton careers website:

Tech job growth

Ex-Googlers Hiring Engineers at TellApart

Burlingame, Calif.-based startup TellApart will hire up to 20 employees in the next year after raising $13 million in new financing.

Founded in 2009 by two ex-Googlers, the company helps online retailers target visitors to their sites who haven't purchased anything, but who might be persuaded to with the right advertising.

Of the planned 20 hires, about a third will be technologists, said Mark Ayzenshtat, co-founder and chief technology officer. Because TellApart's success relies on its ability to predict who will actually make a purchase, the company will be hiring people with expertise in operational machine learning. The company crunches a lot of data, so engineers with distributed systems and Hadoop experience are also in demand.

The company is also hiring business development and sales and marketing employees to help it acquire new clients.

Because of the company's Google roots, it hires engineers who are autonomous, take ownership of projects, and can succeed with little coaching or guidance, Ayzenshtat said.

TellApart offers competitive cash compensation and generous equity rewards, Ayzenshtat said.

Unlike the Google interview process that Ayzenshtat himself endured, TellApart doesn't ask abstract brainteasers to test engineering candidates' mettle. Instead, it asks questions meant to see how easily intimidated and adaptable candidates are.

For instance, an interviewer might ask how one would go about building Google's search engine. The best candidates will take a crack at it, Ayzenshtat said. Sub-par candidates will betray their lack of imagination by noting that they don't have experience in search. That's a warning sign, Ayzenshtat said, because startup engineers will have to tackle a lot of problems they're not experienced in.

"People know what they're good at and they expect to be asked about that, but if you throw so meting at them from left field, they often are put off," he said.

Candidates who make it through the interview process, though, can expect some nifty perks. Ayzenshtat and co-founder Josh McFarland -- who worked on Google's AdWords together -- took the entire 21-person company on a vacation to Hawaii after they met their quarterly goals last year.

Recent Wall Street Layoffs Likely Permanent

The recent round of dramatic cuts in staff at U.S. financial firms will likely increase this year, with many of the jobs never returning.


* Financial sector layoffs up 21% this year
* More cuts likely to come from Wall Street
* Layoffs come as profitability suffers

NEW YORK - U.S. financial firms have been cutting staff dramatically this year, with more layoffs expected to come from Wall Street, according to a report Tuesday.

Unlike the widespread layoffs stemming from the financial crisis of 2008 that was followed by hiring when markets recovered, the 2011 reductions appear to be more permanent.

Challenger, Gray & Christmas, an employment consulting firm, said the financial sector has outlined 21 percent more job cuts so far this year than it did in 2010. Banks, insurance firms and brokers have outlined plans to eliminate 11,413 positions through May, according to publicly available information cited by Challenger, compared with 9,431 during the same period a year ago.

Wall Street has long been characterized by fickle hiring patterns, but John Challenger, head of the consulting group, said new cuts reflect fundamental changes in the business structure and returns of financial firms.
"They will not be as profitable in the future as they were in the past," he said. "That means they're just not going to be able to afford the workforce levels that they had when they were more profitable."

Most cuts to date have occurred in retail banking operations, reflecting subdued economic activity and loan growth. Mergers have also led to headcount reductions as smaller regional banks combine forces.

However, Challenger expects layoffs at large investment and commercial banks to accelerate through the rest of 2011.

Regulatory restrictions and declines in trading volume have challenged the business models and profitability of large investment banks such as Goldman Sachs Group Inc and Morgan Stanley.

Goldman reported an annualized return on shareholders equity of 15 percent during the first quarter, adjusted for special items, compared with more than 30 percent before the crisis erupted. Morgan Stanley, which now has a 20 percent return-on-equity target, delivered an annualized ROE of 6.2 percent in the first quarter.

Wall Street stocks have fallen along with profits in recent months. Goldman shares are down 19 percent so far this year, and Morgan Stanley's are off 17 percent. The KBW Bank Index of large-cap financials is down a more moderate 8.8 percent.

Chicago : Fermilab shedding workers

(Crain's) — Facing a budget crunch next year, Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory plans to cut its workforce by 100 employees or about 5%, Crain’s has learned.

About 1,760 of the lab’s 1,900 employees are eligible for a new severance pay package aimed at getting 100 workers to leave their jobs willingly, but involuntary layoffs will be needed if that goal is not met, lab director Pier Oddone said at a meeting with employees on Thursday.

The national lab’s main facility — the Tevatron — is shutting down in September after nearly a 28-year run as the world’s most powerful particle accelerator, superseded recently by a new facility in Europe. But the lab, near Batavia, has embarked on a series of smaller experiments that should keep its research going for the foreseeable future.

With federal funding expected to be “more or less” flat for some time to come, “we are trying to make sure funding is there” for the new projects, Mr. Oddone said, as the lab shifts from operations to construction of new experiments. Cutting headcount frees up cash to finance those experiments.

The lab is asking for volunteers to take the severance package but will decide who gets to quit based on its workforce needs. “The lab has to be functioning when we’re all done with this,” he told employees.

Fermilab is owned by the Department of Energy and run by a consortium of universities including the University of Chicago.