UBS (NYSE:UBS) is making a bid to increase the unemployment rate all on its own. The bank will lay-off 5,500 people, mostly investment bankers. It will also sell a package of $15 billion portfolio of subprime mortgages to Blackrock (NYSE:BLK). According to Reuters,"UBS cautioned that conditions in financial markets were still tough and declined to offer any results forecast."

The UBS comments about what happens next are a coded message that layoffs at the firm may not be over. UBS has suffered as much or more from subprime write-downs as any bank in the US or abroad.

The news is especially bad for people employed at brokerages and big banks. A continuing spike in mortgage defaults could cause more difficulty in the pool of financial instruments created around the market. That, in turn, could cause more write-offs at large banks triggering the need to raise capital and cut costs.

Tens of thousands of people have been fired on Wall Street already. The news out of UBS shows that the process is far from over.

Douglas A. McIntyre is an editor at 247wallst.com.

As UBS cuts to the bone, investment banking takes another hit originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Tue, 06 May 2008 08:40:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

It has happened before. The cuts were especially deep after the market crash in 1987. New York City now believes that Wall St. will cut 20,000 jobs over the next two years. The number seems too small.

Accoding to Reuters: "The city's Independent Budget Office, in its report, estimated that Wall Street's profits for 2007 will sink by more than 80 percent to the lowest level since 1994." Financial firms account for almost 35% of all income in NYC.

While this would seem to be a local problem, that is not entirely true. Companies that sell luxury items from Tiffany (NYSE:TIF) to BMW will take some hit from falling employment among workers at big banks and brokerages.

Just as important, all of these people pay a hefty federal income tax. As unemployment grows the government will see receipts from the IRS fall. The more of the rich who move off the payrolls, the more difficult it will be to cut the Federal deficit and fund agencies like the Fed.

Douglas A. McIntyre is an editor at 247wallst.com.

Wall Street faces losing 20,000 jobs originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Tue, 25 Mar 2008 07:52:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.