BlackRock plans to cut 500 jobs in first retrenchment since 2019
BLACKROCK plans to dismiss about 500 employees, roughly 2.5 per cent of its global workforce after the world’s biggest asset manager grappled with sharp declines last year in equity and bond markets.
“The uncertainty around us makes it more important than ever that we stay ahead of changes in the market and focus on delivering for our clients,” chief executive officer Larry Fink and president Rob Kapito wrote on Wednesday (Jan 11) in a staff memo seen by Bloomberg.
It’s the first round of job cuts at New York-based BlackRock since 2019, and it will still leave headcount about 5 per cent higher than it was a year ago. The firm, which is set to report fourth-quarter results on Friday, had approximately 19,900 employees at the end of September.
Firms across Wall Street are holding back on hiring plans and paring staff amid mounting economic uncertainty and the threat of a recession.
Goldman Sachs Group is embarking on one of its biggest rounds of job cuts ever, with plans to eliminate about 3,200 positions this week, including from its core trading and banking units.
Surging inflation and rising interest rates have buffeted asset managers and markets, with the S&P 500 tumbling 19 per cent last year.
The firm, with US$7.96 trillion of assets under management at the end of the third quarter, didn’t specify which businesses will be most affected by the job reductions. Fink, 70, and Kapito, 64, said in the memo that they would work to “manage expenses prudently” and invest in cost-effective ways.
The executives sought to emphasise the firm’s ability to take in new client money. Flows into its long-term investment funds increased by US$250 billion through the first nine months of last year, and analysts surveyed by Bloomberg predict they brought in an additional US$116 billion in Q4.
“Our breadth and resilience,” Fink and Kapito wrote, “enable us to play offence when others are pulling back”. BLOOMBERG
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