4,000 Could Lose Jobs at Fidelity

Fidelity Investments might lay off as many as 9%, or 4,000, of its 44,500 global workforce by early next year, according to reports. That would be a considerable cut, on top of 1,000 who have been laid off in the past year through three rounds.

Fidelity spokeswoman Anne Crowley dismissed the reports as mere “speculation” but told Reuters that executives are assessing costs “to make sure they are correctly positioned for the future. Naturally, those reviews include an examination of all of our expenditures, as well as staffing.”

As the stock markets have continued to tumble, mutual funds have been losing money rapidly, with all classes of mutual funds bleeding $104.4 billion in September, $19 billion of that from U.S. diversified equity funds.

Janus Capital is eliminating 9% of its workforce, which translates to 115 jobs, and AllianceBernstein said it also would be eliminating the largest number of jobs in the past 40 years, although it did not give out figures.

This is in stark contrast to 2005 to 2007, when mutual fund companies expanded their payrolls by 21,000 workers, for a total of 168,000 people in the industry, according to the Investment Company Institute.