Financial-services sector is shedding 250,000 jobs

The running tally of announced job cuts in the financial-services industry has surpassed 250,000 for 2008 following yesterday's news that Bank of America Corp. plans to shed up to 35,000 jobs over the next three years.

That's the headline of a new report from Challenger, Gray & Christmas Inc. of Chicago, a global outplacement consulting firm that tracks job cut announcements on a daily basis.

Before yesterday, financial-services firms had already announced 220,506 job cuts so far this year, said Challenger, Gray & Christmas.

The financial-services industry is of vital importance to Massachusetts, and the North Carolina-based Bank of America has a large presence in the Bay State.

The industry is staggering from defaults in the subprime mortgage market that have spilled over into the larger economy.

Recently, such local stalwarts as Fidelity Investments and State Street Corp. have also announced layoffs, 3,000 at Fidelity and up to 1,800 at State Street.

"We probably have not seen the end of major job cuts in the financial sector,” John A. Challenger, chief executive of Challenger, Gray & Christmas, said in a statement.

A Globe story in October cited projections that the collapsing stock market and weakening economy will cost the Massachusetts financial-services industry 7,200 jobs, or 4 percent of the local industry's work force, through the end of 2009. To read that story, please click here. To read today's Globe story on job cuts at Bank of America, please click here.
(By Chris Reidy, Globe staff)