Goldman Sachs is planning to implement a round of lay-offs in the coming weeks that threatens to result in hundreds of job losses among the bank’s employees, according to a person briefed on the matter.
In a sign of the dealmaking slowdown on Wall Street, Goldman will restart its annual cull of underperforming bankers, which it paused during the pandemic at a time when banks were struggling to keep up with the workload.
The process typically results in between 1 and 5 per cent of company-wide employees losing their jobs, with the impending review set to result in lay-offs towards the lower end of that range, the person said.
At the end of June, Goldman had about 47,000 employees across investment banking, trading, asset and wealth management, consumer banking and operational functions.
A Goldman spokeswoman declined to comment. The lay-offs were first reported by the New York Times on Monday.
Goldman finance chief Denis Coleman had telegraphed the lay-offs in July when he said the bank was looking at ways to cut costs, including reintroducing the year-end performance review of its employees.
The Financial Times previously reported that Goldman had paused hiring some replacements for departing bankers.
The planned lay-offs are indicative of broader concerns in finance of job cuts amid a drop-off in dealmaking activity and a slowdown in economic growth in the US and Europe.
It reflects the feast-or-famine nature of the banking industry, with the planned cull coming after a blockbuster year of profits in 2021 for the sector.
Read more on the job cuts at Goldman Sachs here
