As layoffs ripple across Wall Street, some banks stay in 'hiring mode'

Some firms across the financial industry are giving workers the boot after dealmaking activity tumbled last year and as a potential recession looms.

But the picture among Wall Street’s six biggest banks is mixed when it comes to the scale of these layoffs.

And some firms are even adding staff in this environment — as JPMorgan chief Jamie Dimon said last week, his bank is in "hiring mode."

Along with financial results for the fourth quarter, Goldman Sachs (GS) and Morgan Stanley (MS) each reported Tuesday that thousands of job cuts occurred in the past two months — a contrast from rivals JPMorgan Chase (JPM), Citigroup (C), and Bank of America (BAC), whose top executives asserted there were so far no plans eliminate workers.

Goldman Sachs, Wall Street’s premier investment bank, delivered the biggest headcount reductions in the financial industry this cycle — and its largest bout of layoffs in a decade — as the company grappled with a nearly 70% drop in profit in the fourth quarter.

The bank’s chief executive officer David Solomon confirmed during an earnings call Tuesday that Goldman Sachs slashed about 6% of its workforce, or 3,200 jobs. The move had been anticipated after Solomon warned of layoffs in a year-end audio message to staff earlier this month.

“As we said, we had paused our regular performance management-related reductions during the pandemic and also had a period of strong growth in headcount given the opportunity set in 2021,” Solomon told analysts during the call Tuesday. “We feel deeply for the individuals that were impacted by these reductions. They are extremely dedicated and talented individuals, and we wish them the best.”

Moreover, Goldman Sachs reported operating expenses jumped 11% from the prior year, attributing the rise to higher compensation — a sign the bank may evaluate more areas to cut headcount in coming months.

In its fourth-quarter update, Morgan Stanley also announced the bank began a fresh round of job cuts last month. CEO James Gorman said during a call with analysts Tuesday following earnings results that the bank “took about 1,800 heads in early December.”

“We've reduced — we took a severance charge, which affected some of the efficiency ratio for this year, but will improve it for next year,” Gorman said.

Other financial institutions outside of the banking industry have also been cutting jobs. Last week, BlackRock (BLK), the world's largest asset manager, said it will lay off about 500 employees — or roughly 3% of its workforce. Reductions have also taken place at Barclays, Credit Suisse and Nomura.

While Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley and others downsized, JPMorgan and Bank of America upsized. At JPMorgan, headcount rose 2% to 293,723 last quarter, and at BofA, the number of workers rose to 216,823 in Q4 compared to 213,270 in the prior period, according to the latest financial results from each company.

In an interview with Yahoo Finance Live at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland Tuesday, Bank of America CEO Brian Moynihan, when asked about the prospect of mass layoffs at the bank, firmly said: "There'll be none."

This echoed a point the bank’s chief financial officer Alastair Borthwick made during a post-earnings call last week.

And JPMorgan's Dimon said in a televised interview with Fox Business Network last week that the bank has "a lot of growth plans."

"You know, I tend not to stop growing because you have a recession," he said.

Citigroup's chief financial officer Mark Mason also said last week in an earnings call that the bank was “actively hiring to execute against our strategy,” while also “replacing where that makes sense in light of the environment that we're in."

Wells Fargo’s headcount was down in Q4 to 238,698 from 239,209, according to quarterly financials, as the company continued to scale back its home lending businesses following a slowdown in housing demand.

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Alexandra Semenova is a reporter for Yahoo Finance. Follow her on Twitter @alexandraandnyc

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