Goldman staff brace as global jobs cull begins
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[January 11, 2023] By
Sinead Cruise and Selena Li
LONDON/HONG KONG (Reuters) -Staff at Goldman Sachs are bracing for news
on whether they will keep their jobs on Wednesday, as the U.S.
investment bank begins a sweeping cost-cutting drive that could see its
49,000-strong global workforce shrink by thousands.
The long-anticipated jobs cull at the Wall Street titan, expected to
represent the biggest contraction in headcount since the financial
crisis, is likely to affect most of the bank's major divisions, with its
under-fire investment banking arm facing the deepest cuts, a source told
Reuters this month.
Just over 3,000 employees will be let go, the source, who could not be
named, said on Jan. 9.
The cuts began in Asia on Wednesday, where Goldman completed cutting
back its private wealth management unit and let go 16 private bank staff
across its Hong Kong, Singapore and China offices, a source with
knowledge of the matter said. About 8 staff were also laid off in
Goldman's research department in Hong Kong, the source added, with
layoffs ongoing in the investment bank and other divisions.
There was little sign yet of the imminent upheaval around the bank's
major office hubs in New York or London.
Goldman's redundancy plans will be followed by a broader spending review
taking in corporate travel and expenses, the Financial Times reported on
Wednesday, as it counts the costs of a massive slowdown in corporate
dealmaking and a slump in capital markets activity since the war in
Ukraine.
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![](../images/011123PIX/busine6.jpg)
A trader works at the Goldman Sachs
stall on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange, April 16, 2012.
REUTERS/Brendan McDermid/File Photo
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Goldman Sachs declined to comment.
Goldman had 49,100 employees at the end of the third quarter, after
adding significant numbers of staff during the coronavirus pandemic.
The lender is also slashing its annual bonus payments this year to
reflect the depressed market conditions, with payouts expected to
fall about 40%.
Global investment banking fees nearly halved in 2022, with $77
billion earned by the banks, down from $132.3 billion one year
earlier, Dealogic data showed.
Banks struck $517 billion worth of equity capital markets (ECM)
transactions by late December 2022, the lowest level since the early
2000s and a 66% drop from 2021's bonanza, according to Dealogic.
(Reporting By Sinead Cruise and Iain Withers in London, Selena Li in
Hong Kong, Scott Murdoch in Sydney and Saeed Azhar in New York;
Editing by Elaine Hardcastle)
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