Goldman Sach's No. 2 said he could not guarantee the bank won't make more job cuts this year, citing continued economic uncertainty.
Speaking at the Bloomberg Invest conference in Manhattan, Goldman Sachs chief operating officer, John Waldron, said one of the bank's most significant challenges has been mixed economic signals around interest rates, inflation, and a potential recession.
"We're dealing with a lot of crosscurrents," Waldron said at the Bloomberg Invest conference in Manhattan. "In our business, that can tend to make clients sit a little bit more on their hands and be a little bit more muted about their positioning and their activity levels."
When asked about the potential for future job cuts, Waldron cited those "crosscurrents" as a reason the bank's cost-cutting may not be over.
"I can't say anything with certainty because I think those crosscurrents are persistent," he said. "It's hard to really know at this point."
Waldron said it's just as likely that the bank will find itself leaning into a rising economic climate as a falling one.
"Our job is to rightsize our firm's resources — whether it's capital or financial resources or talent and people resources — for the opportunity we see in front of us," he added. "And we think the moves we are making right now is getting us to a place where we are better sized for the opportunity in front of us."
The comments come as the white-shoe investment bank embarks on its third round of job cuts in less than a year as the M&A and IPO drought that started in 2022 continues with no end in sight.
In September, Goldman cut a few hundred staffers, including members of the investment bank's technology, media, and telecommunications team, Insider reported. The bank, which employed about 49,100 people at the end of September, cut about 3,200 employees at the start of this year, including many from its consumer lending division, as Insider reported.
The Wall Street Journal reported at the end of May that several hundred more employees, including many managing directors and senior executives, would be on the chopping block.
Of course, Goldman isn't the only banking cutting headcount, which ballooned during the M&A boom of the pandemic. Morgan Stanley recently announced plans to lay off about 3,00o people. JPMorgan has also been cutting staff, including in its home lending unit and from First Republic Bank, the regional bank it acquired last month.
Waldron said executives who stick with Goldman have more opportunities to move around and try on different hats, which he said was part of the bank's plan to ready more C-Suite successors.
"I think we have done a better job in the last four or five years really trying to build a deeper succession pipeline," Waldron said. He cited the bank's effort to give top talent "more job opportunities to grow and develop to move around," which he says better positions them "to be able to ascend" to one day take over as CEO or COO.
