BlackRock plans to dismiss about 500 employees, about 2.5% of its global workforce.
“The uncertainty around us makes it more important than ever that we stay ahead of changes in the market and focus on delivering for our clients,” CEO Larry Fink and Chairman Rob Kapito wrote Wednesday in a note to employees accessed by Bloomberg.
One of the world’s biggest asset managers faced steep declines in equity and fixed-income markets last year.
It is the first round of job cuts at BlackRock since 2019, and will still leave the workforce about 5% higher than a year ago, Bloomberg claims.
The firm, which will report its fourth-quarter results this Friday, had about 19,900 employees at the end of September.
Rising inflation and rising interest rates have rattled asset managers and markets, with the S&P 500 index plunging 19% in the past year.
The firm, with $7.96 trillion in assets under management at the end of the third quarter, did not specify which businesses will be most affected by the job cuts.
The company’s two leaders said in the note that they would work to “manage expenses prudently” and invest profitably.
The executives sought to emphasize the firm’s ability to take in new client money. Flows into its long-term investment funds increased by $250 billion through the first nine months of last year, and analysts surveyed by Bloomberg predict they brought in an additional $116 billion in the fourth quarter.
“Our breadth and resilience,” Fink and Kapito wrote, “allow us to play offense when others pull back.”
