Tens of thousands of jobs go as China's biggest banks cut costs

Shanghai

CHINA's four biggest banks reported that staff numbers fell by the most in at least six years in the first half, highlighting the possibility that employment has peaked at the firms that are the world's biggest providers of banking jobs.

A decline of 1.5 per cent from the end of last year left 1.62 million workers at Agricultural Bank of China, Industrial & Commercial Bank of China, China Construction Bank Corp and Bank of China, earnings filings showed. Agricultural Bank, the No 1 bank employer, saw its number of employees slip below half a million.