NEW YORK - Lehman Brothers, a US investment bank, is preparing to lay off around 1,400 employees or about five percent of its total workforce, a source said Monday.
The source, who requested anonymity, but is familiar with the bank's plans, said the pending job cuts would affect most of the bank's divisions and regions.
A Lehman Brothers spokeswoman declined to comment.
The investment bank has announced over 3,000 job losses since August, mainly as it has scaled back its US mortgage operations amid a deep housing slump and a related credit crunch.
Lehman Brothers had employed around 28,600 staff as of the end of November. A new round of job cuts would represent about five percent of that total headcount.
The bank, which like rival banks Citigroup and Morgan Stanley is suffering from a sharp downturn in the housing market, has closed some of its former mortgage centers in California, Florida and New Jersey in recent months amid the housing downturn.
leb/jjc/rl
03/10/2008 19:07 GMT