Since the financial crisis over 500,000 banking jobs have disappeared. Anytime there is a downturn on Wall Street jobs disappear. But is this time different?
Bloomberg states;
“Staff reductions at some of the world’s biggest banks are far from over. Deutsche Bank AG, which has held employment close to its 2010 peak, plans to slash 26,000 positions by 2018, following a trend that began with the financial crisis.”
The report continues that Citi has slashed its workforce by 1/3 since the Great Recession and the bank plans on cutting further in 2016.
But commenter Erik Schatzker fails to tackle the elephant in the room. Are these jobs ever coming back?
Anthony Jenkins, the former CEO of Barclays is of the belief that the number of branches and people employed in the financial services sector may decline by as much as 50% over the next ten years. The “best-case scenario”, in his opinion is still rather grim, with employment in financial services dropping by only 20%.
This dramatic shift is being driven by technology as all financial services move online. Is there any reason for a consumer to drive to bank? Not really. Can quite a bit of financial management be handled by robo-advisors and services that scale more efficiently online. Yep.
Schatzker believes the opportunity is for banks to cut costs further. But he appears to miss the point that technology is not just a method to reduce costs. It is the way to provide better, more efficient services.