Goldman Sachs will lay off thousands of people from Wednesday, as per a Bloomberg report. According to sources cited in the report, the number of jobs cut will not go over 3,200. Over a third of the jobcuts will likely be from the company’s core trading and banking units. According to a Reuters report, hundreds of jobs could also be cut from Goldman Sachs’ loss-making consumer business. The investment bank had earlier scaled back plans for Marcus, its direct-to-consumer unit. This will be one of the company’s biggest rounds of layoffs. The last major such exercise had occurred in 2008 after the Lehman Brothers collapse, with Goldman Sachs firing nearly 10 percent of its workforce at that time. A spokesperson for the global investment firm has declined to comment on the report.
The decision comes a week before Goldman Sachs’ traditional year-end compensation discussions. The uncertain economic outlook means that even those who remain may see a drop in their compensation figures.
The Bloomberg report has stated that Goldman Sachs has plans to continue hiring later this year. The uncertain outlook for markets and the economy, fears of persistent inflation, an expensive consumer banking foray and slowdown in various business lines has prompted Goldman Sachs to undertake this move. The scale of layoffs is also compounded by the bank’s mistakes in the retail banking foray.