To read all the press about the Citigroup layoff plan of late, it seems there are two main planks: first, fire about 17,000 people. Then take another 10,000 jobs or so, and move them out of New York to cheaper parts of the US, or move them out of the US entirely to cheaper parts of the world. Finally, take some untold number of extra people — in the tens of thousands — and simply don’t replace them when they leave for whatever reason.
But take another look at the story now that the announcement has actually been made:
Roughly 8 percent of Citigroup’s 327,000 workers, from entry-level consumer bankers to senior executives in the investment bank, will be affected by the restructuring. All five of its major business divisions will face cuts. About 1,600 jobs will be eliminated in New York City, where Citigroup currently has 27,000 employees.
If 8% of the total workforce is affected altogether, and if New York City is the most high-priced location, then one would expect much more than 8% of New York City’s employees to be affected.
In fact, however, it seems that Citigroup’s New York payrolls will only fall by 6% — which is less than the corporate average.
Is there less to this story than meets the eye? If payrolls aren’t being slashed in New York, it’s not clear where they are being slashed. Maybe in places like Tampa, Florida, where Citi has a big office with 3,000 people servicing Latin America; or in O’Fallon, Missouri, where CitiMortgage employs 4,750 people. If those places are hit more severely than New York, then maybe some of the rhetoric about cutting where costs are highest will sound a little hollow.
You are making an assumption that the layoffs are uniform across the income distribution within Citibank.
Given what fraction of the head honchos are probably in new york with their safe positions, and there disproportionately large salaries, that the percentage decrease in payroll in NYC is lower than elsewhere shouldn’t be a suprise.
I liked the rationale was to improve customer service. Get rid of them all then I say.
In Tampa, Cards has already been phased out into Citibank NA Retail Ops (Customer Service/DCU/INS/DBK/DBS/Back Office). We’ve already slimmed down due to attrition following the change. As far as layoffs, only our HR and upper/middle management suffered by a handful of employees.
New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg and Governor Paterson have both threatened public employee layoff. Many States and city governments are cutting off the number of employees, so as with private sector employees. Layoffs have been hitting records recently, making more and more people in need of , . California, who has seen a rise in those needing a quick payday loan, will also likely have to lay off hundreds of government employees in order to curb their growing budget deficit.