BlackRock To Lay-Off About 600 Employees

(RTTNews) - BlackRock (BLK), the asset management giant based in New York, has announced a workforce reduction of approximately 3%, affecting roughly 600 employees. This strategic move is part of the company's effort to reallocate resources and maintain pace with technological changes within the industry.

The company deals with investment, advisory and risk management solutions. With the advancing technology, ETFs are becoming ubiquitous and can be done through automation approach which in turn requires lesser analysts. The company had workforce of 19,800 at the end of December 2022.

However, the memo claimed that even after the layoff, it expects more headcount by the end of the year as it continues 'adding people and building capabilities to support key areas of growth'.

The asset management company has been facing difficulties due to stock market and bond downturn in 2022, and high interest rates in 2023, in a response to which BlackRock laid off 2.5% of its workforce or 500 people in last January. Other companies including Wellington Management and T. Rowe Price Group (TROW) also followed the same.

In October, investors pulled $13 billion from long term investment funds in the third quarter of 2023, following this the company's total assets under management slipped 3.2% to $9.1 trillion from previous quarter's $9.4 trillion.

"For the first time in nearly two decades, clients are earning a real return in cash and can wait for more policy and market certainty before re-risking," said Fink in a statement at the time.