Morgan Stanley CEO hints at job cuts with headcount under review

Morgan Stanley Chief Executive Officer James Gorman suggested job cuts might be coming as senior executives assess headcount at the Wall Street firm. “You’ve got to take into account the rate of growth we’ve had in the last few years,” Gorman said Friday in a conference call with analysts after his bank reported third-quarter results.

“We’ve learned some things during Covid about how we can operate more efficiently. So that’s something the management team is working on between now and the end of the year.”

The balance of power in the job market, which had favored employees since the start of the pandemic, has begun to shift as Covid-19 cases continue to abate and financial markets slump. Wall Street firms are stepping up pressure on workers to return to the office, and a growing number of banks are signaling plans to reinstate periodic job cuts.

Last month, Goldman Sachs Group Inc. CEO David Solomon resumed the firm’s practice of periodically culling underperformers to make way for fresh talent.