American Express to Cut 5,400 Jobs

American Express (NYSE: AXP  ) is to cut thousands of jobs, the company announced in an official release giving some 4Q results. The headcount reduction is part of a restructuring effort that will claim around 5,400 positions. Most of these will be in the firm's travel business, the firm added. At the moment, American Express has approximately 63,500 employees, so the cuts are about 8.5% of that total.

For the company's 4Q, revenues net of interest expense were $8.1 billion, while net income came in at $637 million ($0.56 per share). The latter was greatly affected by one-time expenses, including restructuring charges of $400 million related to the job cuts. Net income in 4Q 2011 totaled $1.2 billion ($1.01 EPS) on $7.7 billion in revenues.

American Express will release a fuller set of its 4Q financials, plus fiscal 2012 results, on Jan. 17.