Outlook is mixed for bank-related jobs in Charlotte

February was brutal for bank workers as the Charlotte area shed 2,900 finance and insurance jobs – a loss nearly triple the size of any suffered before. But preliminary data for March indicates a calm, with finance jobs in the region essentially flat.

That stark contrast, along with interviews with more than a dozen industry experts, suggest the future of “banktown” jobs lies somewhere between wholesale slaughter and a sudden rebound. For the rest of this year at least, the area will continue to lose finance jobs, the bank watchers say. The addition of some smaller finance employers – including New York-based Sagent Advisors, which announced Tuesday its opening of a Charlotte office – won’t come near to making up for those losses.

But in the long run, the industry players say, financial companies will recover and Charlotte will continue to attract more of them, thanks to attributes that have worked in its favor before, such as a skilled work force and a low cost of living.

“Is Charlotte going to be the pillar of strength that it was a few years ago? In the near term, no,” said Gerard Cassidy, an analyst at RBC Capital Markets. “ … Anyone who thinks Charlotte is going to turn around at the end of the year is being too optimistic.”

Bank of America is partly responsible for February’s big drop, as it is slashing jobs to deal with the weak economy and its purchase of Merrill Lynch. When Bank of America released earnings Monday, it said it has about 285,000 employees companywide – a drop of about 17,000 since Dec. 31. The Charlotte bank won’t detail where those job cuts were made, though about 2,000 of them were Merrill Lynch financial advisers.

Full Story: CharlotteObserver.com

CNBC: Bank of America could cut 30,000 jobs

CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Bank of America employees are learning that there could be as many as 30,000 layoffs when the bank and Merrill Lynch merge.  That’s three times as many layoffs as first estimated.

“There will be a lot of layoffs,” said CNBC reporter Charlie Gasparino Tuesday afternoon.

“Something like 30,000 layoffs over a period of time. It could be through attrition and through the selling of businesses.  But that workforce will come down dramatically,”  he said.

The cuts are part of a long-term plan by Bank of America CEO Ken Lewis. Lewis wants to save $7 billion from the merger with Merrrill Lynch over the next few years. The workforce that could be hit the hardest is investment banking.

“There’s good news and bad news in this,” said UNC-Charlotte finance Professor Tony Plath. “It’ll definitely affect New York more than us. We know the cuts will be deeper on the Merrill side and the investment banking side. And those jobs are in New York City. They’re not here in Charlotte.”

Bank of America Media Relations released this statement Tuesday night: “We are currently evaluating our staffing levels, given both the pending merger with Merrill Lynch and the weak economic environment, which is affecting the level of business activity. While we believe both factors will result in eliminations of positions, we have not completed our analysis. We expect to have a final plan early in 2009.”

Taken from WCNC.COM