Wall Street axed 10,600 jobs in 2025, most since 2016

[NEW YORK] 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 is typically the biggest expense line item.  

The six largest firms – JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America, Citigroup, Wells Fargo, Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley – had a combined 1.09 million employees at the end of December.

That is down about 10,600 from a year earlier to the lowest level since 2021. The last time the group had cut so many jobs was in 2016, when the headcount fell by roughly 22,000 from the preceding year. 

Efficiency is the name of the game on Wall Street these days. Most banks swelled their ranks during the pandemic-induced deal boom, only to cut jobs during a sharp slowdown beginning in 2022.

More recently, the question has evolved into how artificial intelligence might replace humans. 

Wells Fargo was by far the biggest driver of reductions last year, as chief executive officer Charlie Scharf continued to make strides turning the firm around.

Its headcount at year-end was down more than 12,000 from a year before – at 205,198 – the lowest level since 2008, before it bought financial services company Wachovia during the financial crisis.

In a conference call on Wednesday (Jan 14), Scharf noted 22 consecutive quarters of reductions, and he has said previously that there was more to come. 

Citigroup, working through a turnaround of its own, ended the year with 3,000 fewer employees than it had at the end of 2024. It was reported on Jan 19 that the bank would trim about 1,000 more jobs this week, and CEO Jane Fraser had signalled additional cuts on Wednesday in a memo to her employees. 

Still, some firms added to their ranks last year. Goldman, for example, grew its headcount by 2 per cent to 47,400, and cited higher compensation expense as a primary driver of its 11 per cent increase in total costs.

Morgan Stanley also ended the year with about 2,500 more employees, despite cutting roughly 2,000 in March. 

“There are continuing changes in terms of skills and so we will look at the types of heads that we need in different groups and divisions,” Morgan Stanley chief financial officer Sharon Yeshaya said in an interview on Thursday.

As for potential future reductions, she said that there was “nothing to talk about at this point”. 

JPMorgan, which has grown headcount rapidly over the past five years, again added employees in 2025, though it did so at the slowest pace since the start of the pandemic. 

Bank of America, meanwhile, has been leaning on attrition. CEO Brian Moynihan said on Wednesday that he expects the number of people that his firm employs to drop this year, adding that “we can just make decisions not to hire and let the headcount drift down”. 

Every time someone leaves, the bank assesses whether they need to be replaced, said CFO Alastair Borthwick. BLOOMBERG