After the decision to take over the troubled Swiss lender Credit Suisse, UBS Group AG revealed plans to lay off as much as 30% of its current workforce, translating to approximately 36,000 positions. SonntagsZeitung first reported the information, which means that UBS is joining the tide of massive layoffs in finance and big tech industries.

UBS Cuts Jobs after Credit Suisse Acquisition

According to data reported by Bloomberg, nearly 538,000 people have lost their jobs in numerous economically important sectors since October 2022. In just one week in January, 52,000 jobs were cut, the worst start to a year in 14 years when the world struggled with the adverse effects of the financial crisis.

172,000 jobs were cut in the technology sector and 110,000 in the consumer discretionary sector, while the financial industry was in third place, with nearly 81,000 professionals departing. Interestingly, 240,000 positions were affected in only 20 companies, where UBS announced the most significant cuts.

Over the past few months, employment has been slashed by such tech giants as Meta, Amazon, Microsoft and Alphabet. Meanwhile, in the financial sector, reductions were announced by troubled Credit Suisse and several other major banks.

JPMorgan announced in February that it was going to cut jobs in its investment banking division, and Goldman Sachs revealed in January that it was preparing to cut 3,200 positions. In contrast, it had previously suggested that up to 4,000 people might lose their jobs.

Additionally, Job cuts were reported by Robinhood, a retail trading platform that competes with traditional banks. Due to the "deterioration of the macro environment," it decided to lay off 23% of its workforce, or about 780 people, as recently as last year.

The latest round of layoffs comes in the aftermath of the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank (SVB), which shook global banking by making it difficult to operate in an already challenging environment of high-interest rates and rising inflation.

SVB played a significant role in exacerbating Credit Suisse's crisis, causing its market valuation to plunge to historic lows and prompting the decision to enter into a deal with UBS. The bank agreed to acquire its struggling competitor for CHF 3 billion while also taking on up to $5.4 billion in losses. UBS earned $7.6 billion in 2022, but attempting to merge the two giant lenders may prove more difficult than initially anticipated.

Massive Job Cuts in the Cryptocurrency Industry

The realms of technology and finance frequently overlap, as clearly demonstrated in the cryptocurrency market. On top of that, this sector has experienced significant job losses in recent months. Apart from the aforementioned factors, the digital assets market in 2022 has faced substantial discounts, further contributing to the job cuts.

The crypto platform, Luno announced in January that it was going to lay off 35% of its existing employees. At the same time, the cryptocurrency exchange Gemini, owned by the Winklevoss millionaire brothers, announced a third round of job cuts, following two earlier ones in June and July last year.

ConenSys decided to cut 11%, while Coinbase announced similar plans. Only Binance, one of the largest exchanges by volume, decided to increase its workforce. According to plans announced three months ago, it wants to increase the number of full-time jobs by 30% this year.