On September 22, a Federal Reserve spokesperson said that the Federal Reserve system is expected to lay off nearly 300 people this fiscal year. This time the layoffs are mainly concentrated in 12 local Federal Reserve Banks, and the most affected are information technology staff. Among them, some engineers are unemployed because the popularity of cloud service software has made the Federal Reserve no longer need these positions.
According to the Federal Reserve's 2022 annual report, the Federal Reserve system has approximately 21,000 employees. This time, 300 employees will be laid off, which accounts for a small proportion of the total number of employees, only about 1.4%. However, this is the first time since 2010 that the Fed has experienced an annual decrease in hiring.
In fact, in addition to the Federal Reserve, many major Wall Street banks have announced layoffs this year. Layoffs are only part of the turmoil in the U.S. banking industry. Since the beginning of this year, the U.S. banking industry has also been involved in the collapse of several banks and the downgrade of U.S. bank ratings by international rating agencies.
"The high interest rate environment has caused the U.S. banking industry to continue to face losses on the asset side, asset quality has deteriorated, the U.S. financial environment has continued to tighten, and the economy has slowed down. Banks are worried that the deterioration of the credit environment will push U.S. banks to tighten credit standards, which may in turn worsen The economic outlook has affected market confidence in regional banks, and liquidity pressure on U.S. banks has increased." Zhou Maohua, a macro researcher at the Financial Markets Department of China Everbright Bank, said.
In addition to the Federal Reserve, many large banks in the United States have started layoffs.
In mid-June this year, Citibank publicly stated that it would lay off 5,000 people by the end of the second quarter of this year, mainly in the investment banking and trading departments. On September 13, Citigroup’s new CEO Jane Fraser announced a new round of layoffs. “Citibank is preparing for a new wave of layoffs. We will reorganize to reverse the sluggish stock price that has existed for many years. This This restructuring will be the largest business restructuring of Citibank in the past 20 years."
Image source: Tu Chong
Andy Saperstein, co-president of Morgan Stanley, one of the top five international investment banks, also said at the end of May that the bank planned to cut about 5% of its workforce, or about 3,200 people.
Goldman Sachs Group, one of the five largest investment banks, has also laid off thousands of employees this year. In January this year, Goldman Sachs laid off about 3,200 people, accounting for 6.5% of its total employees, to reduce costs. Previously, the bank's investment banking business slowed down significantly, its consumer banking business suffered losses, and many senior executives resigned. According to the Financial Times, people familiar with the matter revealed that Goldman Sachs may start a new round of layoffs in October, involving hundreds of positions.
In addition, Bank of America, Barclays, and Wells Fargo have recently disclosed news of layoffs. "This is probably the most challenging job market we've seen since the 2008 financial crisis," said Max Kemnitzer, director of banking and financial services at recruitment consultancy Michael Page.
Xinhua News Agency previously quoted the US Financial Times as saying that this year several large-scale companies on Wall Street in the US
