The biggest US banks cut their combined headcount last year by the most in almost a decade as executives sought to keep a lid on costs through what’s typically the biggest expense line item.
The six largest firms — JPMorgan Chase & Co., Bank of America Corp., Citigroup Inc., Wells Fargo & Co., Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and Morgan Stanley — had a combined 1.09 million employees at the end of December. That’s down about 10,600 from a year earlier to the lowest level since 2021. The last time the group cut so many jobs was in 2016, when headcount fell by roughly 22,000 from the preceding year.