First Marblehead will cut more jobs

(This chart tracks the performance of First Marblehead stock)

First Marblehead Corp., a Boston company in the badly battered student loan business, said today that it has reduced its full-time employee head count by 24 percent in a continued effort to reduce costs.

As of the end of June, First Marblehead had 368 full-time employees, most of them in Massachusetts, according to a securities filing.

Today's announcement follows an earlier job cut in May, when First Marblehead disclosed plans to lay off 500 people, or what then was more than half of its work force. To read a Globe story on the May job cuts, please click here. In August, First Marblehead replaced its chief executive. To read that story, please click here.

First Marblehead may be a casualty of the credit crunch that spilled over from the subprime mortgage sector. As credit tightened, investors became reluctant to buy packages of loans bundled together, including student loans that First Marblehead bundled together.

Today's announcement "represents another phase in the company's cost reduction plan, and it will affect staff at its corporate headquarters in Boston and processing center in Medford, Mass," First Marblehead said in a press release.
(By Chris Reidy, Globe staff)