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The job picture continued to dim this week with Citigroup confirming a higher level of layoffs than originally anticipated and JPMorgan Chase apparently ready to follow suit, with a 10 percent cut in its investment banking unit.
On Thursday, the Labor Department said new claims for unemployment benefits jumped last week to a 16-year high, providing more evidence of a rapidly weakening job market expected to get even worse next year.
New applications for jobless benefits rose to a seasonally adjusted 542,000 which was much higher than Wall Street economists' expectations of 505,000,
That is also the highest level of claims since July 1992, the department said.
The latest moves in the banking sector come amid an overall wave of layoffs across the United States, and Europe, as companies move to cut costs in the face of slackening demand and a general economic downturn.
Indeed, the National Association of Business Economists' poll of 50 professional forecasters released Monday said U.S. economy is in recession and will contract at a faster pace in the fourth quarter. The unemployment rate was likely to peak at 7.5 percent by the third quarter of 2009. The latest jobs report put the unemployment at 6.5 percent, a 15-year high.
Slideshows On the Job Front ... |
Here's a rundown of some of the recently announced job cuts: (source: Reuters, with CNBC staff):
- The Bank of New York Mellon [BK
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] said Thursday it will cut its
worldwide work force by 4 percent, or about 1,800 jobs, blaming the weak global
economy. - Deutsche Bank [DB
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] is going to cut 900 jobs from its London and New York offices.
- JPMorgan Chase [JPM
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] is cutting 10 percent of its investment banking staff —about 3,000 jobs—as the economic slowdown starts to bite into its earnings, confirming earlier reports.
- Neptune Orient Lines [NPTOF
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] the world's seventh-largest container carrier, said on Wednesday it will shed 9 percent of its workforce—about 1,000 jobs, mostly in North America— and warned of a grim outlook for the shipping sector.
- The Associated Press plans to cut up to 10 percent of its workforce in 2009—roughly 400 employees—according to sources at the news service, as it copes with tough financial times and ailing member newspapers.
- In Europe, French carmaker Peugeot Citroen said it would cut 2,700 jobs, engine maker Roll-Royce said it expects up to 2,000 job cuts next year, while Anglo-Swedish drugmaker AstraZeneca anticipated 1,400 job losses over coming years.
- Boeing [B
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] announced plans on November 19 to cut approximately 800 positions at a Wichita, Kansas plant, due to delays in the U.S. Air Force tanker-replacement project and the end of other programs. The layoffs, which will hit managers and both salaried and hourly workers, will take place mostly in the first half of 2009.
Citigroup [C Loading... ()
] is cutting as many as 53,000 jobs in its investment bank and other divisions throughout the world. (Read more here).- Sun Microsystems [JAVA
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] said it plans to cut up to 6,000 jobs, or 18 percent of its global work force, as sales of high-end servers have collapsed.
- BT Group [BT
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], the UK telecommunications firm, will cut 10,000 jobs, or 6.3% of its global work force, in the first quarter of 2009.
- Applied Materials [AMAT
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], the semiconductor-and-solar panel equipment maker, is slashing 1,800 jobs, the company annonnced after reporting four-quarter profits fell 45% on weak sales due to declining corporate technology spending.
- Circuit City [CC
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], which is filing for bankruptcy, is laying off about 17 percent of its domestic work force, which could affect up to 7,300 people.
- Deutsche Post [AG
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], German mail and logistics company Deutsche Post will cut 9,500 jobs at its DHL unit in the U.S. and eliminate U.S.-only domestic express shipping.The new round of cuts, which will see the shedding of 7,000 in a single town, Wilmington, Ohio (pop. 12,00) that has been the hub of DHL's five-year effort to take on US rivals UPS and FedEx on their home turf, are on top of another 5,400 job cuts it already announced.
- Nortel Networks [NT
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] plans to lay off 1,300 workers, nearly 5 percent of its workforce.
- Motorola [MOT
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] posted a third-quarter net loss and revenue fell a steeper-than-expected 15 percent, as a result the telecom equipment maker will slash 3,000 jobs in a cost-cutting effort.
- Ford [F Loading... (