The Associated Press is reporting that the U.S. financial industry could shed as many as 200,000 jobs over the next 12 to 18 months because of the credit crises.
The U.S. financial industry has been shedding jobs at a record clip, and some analysts predict the pace will only accelerate over the next year-and-a-half as banks cut costs in the face of the housing market slump and the weak economy.
Analysts at the financial research firm Celent LLC said in a report Tuesday that it expects the U.S. commercial banking industry - essentially, all companies that lend or collect deposits - to lose 200,000 of its 2 million jobs over the next 12 to 18 months.
An annual loss of 200,000 jobs at the nation's commercial banks would be an unprecedented number.
These kind of losses would also expand the economic weakness we have already been seeing. These would be in addition to the 153,000 financial services jobs lost in 2007. Most of these losses came in the mortgage-lending business according to the AP story.
