Fidelity to Cut 1,300 Employees This Month

Fidelity Investments plans to cut about 1,300 employees in November and will have a second round of layoffs during the first quarter of the coming year, due to global economic conditions and the “unsettled nature of the world’s stock markets.”

The job cuts represent 2.9 percent of the Boston-based asset management company’s 44,000 workers, the mutual fund giant said in a statement.

The company said details of the second round of job cuts would be finalized in the coming weeks.

“While this wasn’t an across-the-board cut, most divisions will be impacted,” said Ann Crowley, a spokeswoman for Fidelity.

She noted that most of the company’s division leaders will lay off some of the company’s employees.

Crowley added that the company plans to reduce some of the layers of its management structure and will focus on maintaining the resources to provide the “highest level of customer service.”

As of September 30 Fidelity’s custodied assets have fallen 9 percent, to $3 trillion, while its managed assets have declined nearly 7 percent, to $1.4 trillion, compared with the year-ago period.

In another ominous sign, Financial Research Corp. of Boston last month reported that Fidelity’s mutual fund assets had fallen 11.8 percent, to $716.9 billion, in the same time period.

Filed by Aaron Siegel of Investment News, a sister publication of Workforce Management. To comment, e-mail editors@workforce.com.

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