This just came out today... http://en.terra.com/news/news/bofa_layoffs_are_the_latest_as_an_industry_shrinks/act399401
Bank of America Corp. is cutting 3,500 jobs, the latest sign that the banking industry is becoming smaller, simpler and less profitable.
It's quite a transformation from the go-go days of five or six years ago. Then, big banks were reaping outsized profits from large bets on risky trading and complicated investments that eventually backfired, fueling the financial crisis that scorched them and the global economy in 2008.
The cuts confirmed Friday by Bank of America follow layoffs announced this summer at Goldman Sachs Group Inc., Bank of New York Mellon Corp., State Street Corp. and other financial institutions.
And though banks also laid off thousands of workers in 2008 and 2009, analysts say it's different this time: Many of the banks are posting profits right now, so their layoffs indicate permanent structural changes rather than temporary cuts in response to a weak economy.
Steven Mann, chairman of the finance department at the University of South Carolina's Moore School of Business, said he's hearing from MBA grads who have been job-searching for months and haven't found anything.
http://en.terra.com/news/news/bofa_layoffs_are_the_latest_as_an_industry_shrinks/act399401