Goldman Sachs, one of Wall Street's top firms, has axed 150 investment bankers as part of its plans to cut its existing workforce by around five per cent which was spelt out earlier this year.
A spokesman for the bank said today the job cuts were across the group and included some senior, highly paid bankers at the level of managing director.
The job cuts at Goldman underline an overall weakness in mergers and acquisitions activity and a dip in equity fund raising by companies industrywide.
Recently, rival Morgan Stanley cut 1,500 jobs, most of them at its investment management and securities division. Merrill Lynch has cut jobs and so has Citigroup, the world's largest financial services firm which employs over 1,200 people in Dublin is getting rid of several hundred technology and back office jobs.
Recently some banks have been hiring business school graduates, which cost an average $100,000 per year including bonuses, instead of hiring investment banking veterans who cost an average of $500,000 per year on Wall Street.
Goldman's chief executiveMr Henry Paulson also took a 12 per cent pay cut in 2000, down at $22.5 million from $25.3 million last year.