JPMorgan Chase & Co (NYSE:JPM) earned the dubious distinction of the most job cutter title so far in 2013, heading a list of top 10 publicly-traded U.S. companies.
According to a list compiled by Marketwatch, the nation’s largest bank heads the list of top 10 American companies cutting the most jobs. J.C. Penney Company, Inc. (NYSE:JCP), International Business Machines Corp. (NYSE:IBM), The Boeing Company (NYSE:BA), and American Express Company (NYSE:AXP) occupy the other four among the top five positions.
JPMorgan Chase plans to lay Off 19,000 Jobs
With customers increasingly showing preference to use self-service technologies, JPMorgan Chase announced its plans to trim 4,000 jobs at its consumer banking division. Besides this, JPMorgan Chase & Co (NYSE:JPM) announced its intentions to lay-off 15,000 mortgage workers, many of whom were brought in to process defaulted mortgages during the housing crisis.
According to the Marketwatch report, Wells Fargo also announced its intention to lay off 2,300 employees amid lower demand for mortgage refinancing. This scheme was quite popular with home buyers when interest rates were lower.
Leading banks announce layoffs
Last month, we reported that JPMorgan Chase & Co (NYSE:JPM) launched a firm-wide effort to sell off assets, which its chief Jamie Dimon views as non-core assets. The bank also announced its intention to leave the private student loan business.
Citigroup Inc (NYSE:C) also announced its plans to lay-off an estimated 2,200 workers within its mortgage business by early next year, as rising mortgage rates have hurt mortgage lending and refinancing. It was indicated that the layoffs could happen at mortgage units across the country.
Yesterday, Wells Fargo & Company (NYSE:WFC), the largest U.S. bank by market capitalization, announced another 925 layoffs, pushing the total number of its workers receiving 60-day notices since July 18 to 6,511. All the lay-offs announced yesterday occurred within the Wells Fargo Home Mortgage division, which is the bank’s West-Des Moines-based mortgage business.
During the bank’s conference call with analysts in July, Wells Fargo’s chief financial officer Tim Sloan indicated that the increase in mortgage rates would affect the bank’s mortgage business. Sloan indicated the possibility that the bank will no longer be able to make more than $100 billion in home loans, which the bank made during the past seven consecutive quarters.
