Morgan Stanley is preparing to lay off approximately 2,000 employees later this month as part of a broader effort to enhance operational efficiency, Reuters reported. The job cuts, which will affect 2% to 3% of the company’s global workforce, will not include financial advisers, according to a source who requested anonymity.
At the end of 2024, Morgan Stanley had more than 80,000 employees worldwide. The source emphasized that the layoffs were not driven by current market conditions but rather by strategic restructuring.
The move follows a wave of job cuts by major Wall Street banks in recent weeks, as they brace for economic uncertainty—heightened by President Donald Trump’s newly announced tariffs on key trading partners.
Goldman Sachs has accelerated its annual performance review process and is expected to reduce its workforce by 3% to 5%. Meanwhile, Bank of America recently cut 150 junior banker positions within its investment banking division, according to an earlier Reuters report.
Bloomberg News first reported Morgan Stanley’s impending layoffs, noting that some job cuts will be performance-based, while others stem from shifts in the bank’s global workforce strategy.
Wall Street had anticipated a strong recovery in capital markets following Trump’s re-election, but deal-making has been sluggish as businesses grapple with uncertainty over the administration’s tariff policies.
Speaking at a conference on Tuesday, Morgan Stanley Co-President Daniel Simkowitz acknowledged that “new equity issues and mergers and acquisitions are certainly a bit on pause, or the bar is high because of some of the policy uncertainties.” However, he added that the bank was still expanding its investment banking division, stating that Morgan Stanley was adding “real headcount” at senior levels.
