Citibank, RBS and JP Morgan wield gilt edged axe

City workers under siege

Citibank is cutting another 53,000 from its payroll, on top of the 22,000 job cuts it has already announced.

JP Morgan is also expected to announce job cuts today - the bank has already told contractors to accept lower day rates or find work elsewhere. Royal Bank of Scotland also said today that it is cutting 3,000 posts from its investment banking division.

Goldman Sachs told contractors two weeks ago to accept a 15 per cent cut in day rates and Barclays Capital is looking for volunteers for redundancy within its IT department.

Citibank is the largest of recent culls but follows last week's news of 10,000 job cuts at BT and over 2,000 at Virgin Media. Staff at Citibank have reportedly already been told about the layoffs but the company is releasing no details of exactly where the cuts will come.

With no sign of an end to the credit freeze and so many banks in the process of merging, and thereby laying off duplicated staff, it is going to get tougher in financial IT departments before it gets better.

The Local Government Association predicted today that as many as 370,000 jobs could go in London and 280,000 in the south-east over the next couple of years.

Researchers predict construction and manufacturing will be worst hit. The LGA said that as many as two out of five jobs in London and the south-east could be at risk but that "renaissance northern cities" might do better. ®