Around 20% of Goldman Sachs’ 3,200 job cuts hit its New York headquarters as the Wall Street bank rolled out its deepest round of redundancies since the 2008 financial crisis.
Goldman cut 589 people from its 200 West Street office as part of a broader round of job losses, according to a filing with the New York State Department of Labor.
This is around 18% of the total, showing that Goldman staff in its key Wall Street functions were targeted as the bank has cut costs. Around a third of the 3,200 job losses hit its core banking and trading operations. However, insiders said that more junior employees felt the brunt of the cuts in London and New York.
Goldman’s latest cuts were the second round of redundancies at the US bank within the space of four months. Its 3,200 job losses are the deepest of any of its Wall Street rivals so far, but analysts, dealmakers and headhunters expect a second wave of job cuts across the sector if investment banking activity does not pick up in the coming months.
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“We know this is a difficult time for people leaving the firm,” a Goldman spokesperson said. “We’re grateful for all our people’s contributions, and we’re providing support to ease their transitions. Our focus now is to appropriately size the firm for the opportunities ahead of us, in a challenging macroeconomic environment.”
Goldman’s 3,200 job cuts amount to 6.5% of its total headcount and are part of a broader set of measures from chief executive David Solomon to rein in costs as dealmaking activity has slumped and its consumer business has lost around $3bn since 2020.
Under Solomon, Goldman has shifted from being a pure-play investment bank into consumer-facing products, and headcount has expanded by 34% since 2018 to around 49,100.
Goldman informed staff of job cuts on the week of 9 January, with senior dealmakers given notice ahead of cuts to the junior ranks, Financial News reported. In London, around 50 people were cut from its investment banking division.
Credit Suisse is in the midst of a cost-cutting program that will see 9,000 jobs axed by 2025. Meanwhile, Morgan Stanley cut 1,600 employees after reintroducing its annual cull of underperforming staff. Citigroup, Barclays and Deutsche Bank have also trimmed their ranks of dealmakers in recent months.
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