Goldman Eyes Cutting 1 Pct Of Workforce

Goldman Sachs plans to move forward with a “modest number of layoffs,” according to a company spokesperson on Wednesday (Sept. 30), meaning around 400 people, Reuters reported.

That accounts for about 1 percent of the bank’s workforce, and the news comes months after the bank paused job cuts because of the pandemic.

Many of the cuts will be tied to back-office roles which have been folded into other roles as part of a reorganization prior to the pandemic. Goldman Sachs’ annual cull has separated it from Wall Street rivals, which usually make periodic mass layoffs, Reuters reported.

“At the outbreak of the pandemic, the firm announced that it would suspend any job reductions,” the spokesperson said, according to Reuters. “The firm has made a decision to move forward with a modest number of layoffs.”

In January, Goldman said it was aiming for a 60 percent efficiency rate for the next three years (a lower number means a bank is better at managing its cost-to-revenue ratio), Reuters reported.

The jobless rate, which spiked during the height of the pandemic, has been mischaracterized slightly, PYMNTS reported. While the official rate in May was 13.3 percent, almost half the adult population lacked a job. The difference came from counting adults not working and also no longer seeking work, with around 11.9 million out of work and not expecting to get called back, and another 5.7 million believing they might get called back but were unlikely to.

In August, executives of dozens of high-profile companies have vowed to hire 100,000 people from New York’s minority communities, including low-income Black, Latinx and Asian communities, forming the New York Jobs CEO Council.

Goldman Sachs’ David Solomon was among the members of that group, alongside other prominent officials from Amazon, Microsoft, Google and J.P. Morgan Chase. Recognizing the damage wrought by the pandemic, J.P. Morgan’s Jamie Dimon said the CEO Council was aiming to “prepare the city’s workforce with the skills of the future and helping New Yorkers who have been left behind get a foot in the door,” PYMNTS reported.