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Massachusetts lost another 7,000 in October, the worst month for the state’s labor market since March 2005, the Patriot Ledger reports.

Monagle to Assist Reserve As Liquidation Adviser

Stressing that the reorganization is not motivated by the financial crisis but a strong desire to improve accountability and, with that, performance, Putnam Investments Chief Executive Officer Robert Reynolds announced the firm is doing away with team-managed equity mutual funds. Instead, those funds will be run by single portfolio managers.

OppenheimerFunds has appointed William F. Glavin, Jr. as CEO, effective January 1. Current Chairman and CEO John V. Murphy will remain the chairman and continue to serve as president and a director/trustee of the funds until his retirement at the end of next year.

MFS told 90 people, 5% of its workforce of 1,800, they were being laid off on Thursday, Investment News reports.

With sales plummeting in the U.K., Fidelity International is preparing to lay off 300 people, or 14% of its staff of 2,100, The Evening Standard reports.

With investment banking and trading being two of the areas hardest hit within the 160,000 financial services jobs lost around the world, many analysts will find themselves unemployed as well, the International Herald Tribune reports.

Reserve Funds has hired Joseph T. Monagle, Jr. to help the firm sell positions in a difficult debt and credit market.

Because it takes about six months to a year for executive search firms to catch up with the general labor market, a number of recruiters that specialize in financial services are likely to cut their staffs early next year, Dow Jones reports.

BlackRock will be eliminating a number of positions among its 5,500 ranks, Bloomberg reports, quoting an internal memo it obtained. It will be the first time in its 20 years of existence that it has eliminated jobs.

Stressing that the reorganization is not motivated by the financial crisis but a strong desire to improve accountability and, with that, performance, Putnam Chief Executive Officer Robert Reynolds announced Monday that the firm is doing away with team-managed equity mutual funds. Instead, those funds will be run by single portfolio managers.

Upon laying off 1,300 people last week, Fidelity Investments indicated that another 1,700 will lose their jobs in the first quarter of 2009, bringing the tally of layoffs to 3,000, or 7% of the workforce.

Bank of New York Mellon Division Hires Murphy

Of the 130,000 jobs that have been lost at financial services firms since the middle of last year, most have been at banks and brokerage firms. Mutual fund companies, so far, have held up because they’ve been buttressed by ongoing fees from customers retirement savings. In 2007, fund companies lost only 1.6% of their workforce, or 2,723 jobs.

American Century this week will inform 17% of its workforce, or 270 employees, that they are being let go due to the aftershocks of the credit crisis, declining assets due to redemptions and falling stock prices, and declining investor confidence and a weakening economy.

Curian Hires Ramsier as Divisional VP for the West

Indicating that it is only the first of at least two immediate job cut waves, Fidelity Investments announced Thursday it will eliminate 2.9% of its 44,400 workforce, or 1,300 positions, by the end of the month. A second layoff, the size of which has yet to be determined, will occur in the first quarter of next year, Fidelity said.

Prudential Arm Hires Structured Exec Bonesteel

Many large corporations and asset managers in Massachusetts are planning to cut jobs, and by the best estimates, the state could lose jobs for 4%, or 7,200, of its financial servcies workforce by the end of next year, slightly higher than an estimated 3% decrease in the rest of the nation, The Boston Globe reports.

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.