Merrill Lynch, B of A Layoffs to Be in 'Thousands'

Bank of America's pickup of Merrill Lynch seemed to stave off another Lehman-like Federal Reserve rescue, but it is not a complete save. Many employees at both firms have reason to feel anxious.

From Bloomberg:

Merrill Lynch & Co. Chief Executive Officer John Thain said he expects "thousands'' of job losses from the bank's $50 billion takeover by Bank of America Corp.

Most of the cuts will fall in information technology, operations , and finance, Thain, 53, said in a Bloomberg Television interview in Dubai today. Jobs won't be eliminated in the fixed income and commodities divisions, he said.

"We haven't mapped it out in terms of actual number of people, but we are committed to saving $7 billion across the combined platforms, and that will be a challenge,'' Thain said. "Between our two companies it will be clearly thousands of jobs.''

The cuts in IT and finance will add more job seekers to an already crowded pool. So, what options do these individuals have? Some are looking for work overseas, the Wall Street Journal reports. Others are looking for related work in different industries—eyeing financial and IT jobs in advertising agencies, reports AdAge.com. Start-ups and small firms also jumped at the chance to hire financial talents early on.

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