Fidelity to cut 1,700 jobs early next year: reports
New cuts will bring planned dismissals to roughly 7% of total workforce
By John Letzing, MarketWatch
Last update: 5:53 p.m. EST Nov. 14, 2008SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) -- Fidelity Investments plans to cut roughly 1,700 jobs during the first quarter of 2009, according to media reports Friday, as the world's largest mutual fund manager grapples with the effects of the market meltdown.
The fund industry as a whole has swooned recently, as record amounts have been pulled from U.S. mutual funds amid the broad market sell-off.
News of Fidelity's planned job cuts follows a separate move earlier this week by the Boston-based firm to cut 1,300 jobs.
All together, the two rounds of cuts will result in the dismissal of roughly 7% of Fidelity's total workforce of 44,000, according to reports.
Fidelity is only one of a number of financial firms facing cutbacks.
Earlier this week, Morgan Stanley (MS:morgan stanley com new
MS 12.03, -1.18, -8.9%) said it would cut nearly 10% of its institutional securities professionals, which comes on top of a 10% cut in its workforce overall this year. See related story.
In addition, Janus Capital Group Inc. (JNS:janus cap group inc com
JNS 7.27, -0.64, -8.1%) , AllianceBernsteinHolding (AB:alliancebernstein holding lp unit ltd partn
AB 17.70, -0.98, -5.2%) and Legg Mason Inc. (LM:Legg Mason, Inc
LM 15.65, -2.27, -12.7%) have all announced job cuts in recent weeks.
According to a report in the online edition of The Wall Street Journal, Fidelity says it will cut jobs in most divisions, but won't dismiss portfolio managers or investment analysts, and will try to maintain staff in its customer service departments.
John Letzing is a MarketWatch reporter based in San Francisco