Posted on 10/08/2010 7:42:05 AM PDT by WebFocus
Wall Street firms are pruning their ranks right and left right now.
Finance layoffs are a big story - Meredith Whitney predicts 80,000 layoffs in the US financial industry (take that with a grain of salt) - and the numbers that have been reported to the media may be lower than reality, says a tipster who tells us that the huge quant fund DE Shaw actually laid off 25% of its employees, not 10% like we previously thought.
"The internal number is more like 25%. You can report that," he told us, "say, 'the mailroom guy says it's 25%.'"
Previous reports said that on one day, DE Shaw fired 150 people. We also heard that the bottom 10% were cut from an investor with the fund who also said that the fund disproportionately cut employees who had been investing in the real estate sector.
Let's read into this, even though we're probably wrong. Maybe:
10% were laid off on one day, more were let go later 25% of non-admin staff were let go (lots of analysts and portfolio managers) 25% empty is just how it feels (the morale inside the firm is low) For what it's worth, we also heard from someone inside Bank of America that the firm's layoffs were more like 15%, not just 5% of Capital Markets, like we previously heard.
"They cut like 15 percent or something throughout the bank," a former employee told us.
"People were cut in every group that I know people in, and at all levels too - analyst, associate, VP, Director and MD. They didn't seem to spare analyts as is usually the case it seems."
Of course layoffs aren't unique to these two firms.
(Excerpt) Read more at businessinsider.com ...
During the good days, their advertisement for hiring would usually include such words as "Only Ivy League Graduates Need Apply" or something to that effect.
This month has seen a spate of layoffs in large hedge funds and Wall Street firms...
Giant Hedge fund CITADEL just announced mass layoffs,
Bank of America started the ball going by announcing a cut of 5% of its staff as a start.
Then we have Morgan Stanley announcing a hiring freeze
RBS announcing 500 layoffs in its i-banking division.
Then Knight Capital, a capital market company announced more job cuts.
It looks like Meredith Whitney is on track with her predictions when she tells us to expect 80,000 finance jobs to be cut from now to next year.
They’ll hire them back if the Cap n Trade scheme is ever passed...
OK, so only Ivy League layoffs! lol. So much for being the best and brightest.
With super computers trading back and forth on low volume and bad news, who needs real people on Wall Street anymore ?!!
I note with interest that close to 70% of today’s trading volume come as a result of algorithmic trading.
DE Shaw is one of the foremost proponents of this.
This company also had an advantage by their top management being buddy buddies with guys like Larry Summers, Obama Economic Adviser and former Treasury Secretary.
I wonder if Larry Summer’s departure might have hurt their bottom line....
“I wonder if Larry Summer’s departure might have hurt their bottom line....”
That wouldn’t surprise me.
Its another form of patronage used by the tyrant and it must be stopped.
Wonderful.
Now there will be more “business coaches” and “project managers” to compete with.
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