Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. will begin to cut about 5 percent of its staff on Monday as part of an overall plan to streamline its balance sheet amid further turbulence in the financial markets, said a person familiar with the plan.
About, 1,400 employees of its overall 28,000 will be informed next week that they have lost their jobs, according to the person who was not authorized to speak publicly. The move is part of Chief Executive Richard Fuld's strategy to make Lehman a more nimble investment bank. Wall Street faces continued pressure because of the global credit crisis.
The nation's fourth-biggest investment bank isn't the only one to trim staff. Similar moves have been made recently at Morgan Stanley, Merrill Lynch & Co., and Goldman Sachs Group Inc.
JPMorgan Chase & Co. is also planning to cut staff once its buyout of Bear Stearns Cos. is completed. Several analysts this week predicted about half of Bear Stearns' 14,000 workers could be cut.
So far this year, 18,000 jobs related to U.S. mortgage markets have been cut because of the implosion of that sector, according to research firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas. That accounts for a majority of the 22,000 overall financial sectors jobs lost so far in 2008.
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