Citigroup to Cut 4,500 Jobs
Citigroup announced on Tuesday it will lay off about 4,500 employees over the next few months in the latest elimination of Wall Street jobs as the financial sector continues to deal with tough economic times. Speaking at the Goldman Sachs Financial Services Conference in New York, Citi’s chief executive Vikram Pandit noted the cuts would be made gradually so as to limit the impact of severance payments and other costs associated with the layoffs.
At the end of September, Citi employed 267,000 workers around the world. The company indicated it was considering a round of layoffs last month, but a source said the cuts would top out at around 3,000. Overall, the financial services sector has lost more than 200,000 jobs so far this year, and Bank of America has announced it will eliminate about 30,000 positions in the next few years alone.
Annual bonuses, meanwhile, are expected to decline between 20 and 30 percent among financial firms’ executives this year, according to data provided by Johnson Associates, a compensation consulting firm. Another consulting firm, Options Group, noted that overall executive compensation in the sector will decline 27 percent this year to its lowest level since 2008.
