Goldman Sachs is reportedly planning to axe thousands of jobs in the new year as it looks to boost its profits further.
The bank’s boss told staff that cuts would be made early next month, with reports suggesting that up to 8% of its 49,000 employees could be fired – the equivalent of 4,000 job losses.
It was also thought to be considering slashing its bonus pool by up to 40%.
Chief executive David Solomon told employees in an end-of-year message that the bank was preparing for an economic slowdown.
“We are conducting a careful review and while discussions are still ongoing, we anticipate our headcount reduction will take place in the first half of January,” he was reported as saying by Bloomberg.
“There are a variety of factors impacting the business landscape, including tightening monetary conditions that are slowing down economic activity,” Solomon said.
However, Goldman is still expected to post massive profits in the next two years. A survey of analysts by S&P Global Market Intelligence predicts it will make $12bn in net profits for 2022, and $13bn in 2023.
Those numbers would be the largest since the banking industry caused the global financial crisis in 2009, with the exception of a record $21bn in 2021 driven by a boom in merger activity.
Reporting by Frank Prenesti for Sharecast.com
