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JPMorgan Chase (JPM-1.03%) hired 60,000 people in the last five years, increasing its workforce by 23%. It looks like that’s about to grind to a half.
Jeremy Barnum, JPMorgan’s chief financial office, told investors at meeting in New York on Monday that the bank is telling managers to take a beat on hiring.
“We’re asking people to resist head count growth where possible and increase their focus on efficiency,” he said in remarks reported by Business Insider.
AI will be a big part of that, he said, resulting in a 10% staffing reduction in divisions such as account services, processing, and fraud.
“It should go without saying that we’ll never compromise on safety and soundness and we’ll continue to hire and invest in the high-certainty areas where there is a link between adding employees and growth revenue,” Barnum said.
JPMorgan’s CEO of consumer and community banking, Marianne Lake, was bullish on AI’s effect on efficiency, Business Insider reports. “I would take the over on this projection and bet that we will deliver more,” Lake said at the meeting.
Future hires will be strategic, Barnum said, primarily bankers and advisors in “high-certainty areas.” They’ll also be highly unlikely to workl from home, after CEO Jamie Dimon recently railed against the practice at a town hall with employees, saying, “You can’t learn working in your basement.
In the same meeting, he told employees that “attrition is your friend.
“We could be far more efficient, and we should always be thinking that way,” he said. “I think reducing bureaucracy literally will reduce cancer.”
JPMorgan last month reported first-quarter earnings of $5.07 per share on revenue of $46.01 billion, topping analyst expectations as profit rose 9% to $14.64 billion.