JPMorgan, acquiring rival investment bank Bear Stearns amid one of the worst market slumps ever, so far has extended jobs to about 6,000 out of Bear’s nearly 14,000 employees by cutting some existing jobs to help offset the new staff joining from Bear Stearns. “We are not growing our workforce by 6,000 jobs,” says a JPMorgan spokeswoman.
Earlier on Monday Chief Executive James Dimon said about three-fourths of people decisions have been completed so far, with 40% offered jobs.
The remaining roughly 3,500 employees will learn their fates in the next two weeks. Those staffers, mostly in technology and operations, and will likely see a lower percentage of job offers.
The merger is expected to be completed June 1.
The fate of Bear’s bankers and traders have been hanging in the balance since March 16, when the New York bank was forced into a merger with the bigger, stronger JPMorgan.
For weeks, JPMorgan officials denied they knew how many layoffs would result from the merger.
There has been widespread speculation that about half of Bear’s employees would be laid off.