BlackRock Cuts 3% Of Global Staff

BlackRock, the world’s largest asset manager, is set to lay off approximately 600 employees as it aims to reorganize its resources in response to technological changes in the financial industry, as reported by Nicole Goodkind for CNN.

BlackRock also laid off about 2.5% of its workforce, or 500 people, in January of the previous year. I Photo: Dazzling4 Wikimedia Commons

“We see our industry changing faster than at any time since the founding of BlackRock,” wrote CEO Larry Fink and President Rob Kapito in an internal memo reviewed by CNN.

“As we prepare for 2024 and this very exciting but distinctly different landscape, businesses across the firm have developed plans to reallocate resources.” The executives added that new technologies "are poised to transform our industry."

Notably, BlackRock had also laid off about 2.5% of its workforce, or 500 people, in January of the previous year.

Fink and Kapito mentioned in their memo that exchange-traded funds (ETFs) "are becoming ubiquitous as the preferred vehicle for delivering both index and active investment strategies."

ETFs, often designed to track an index like the S&P 500, can be managed through automation, requiring less active decision-making and reducing the need for large teams of analysts.

WEEKLY FEATURE : Jose Mari Chan And The Christmas Anthem