HSBC Holdings Plc (NYSE: HBC) continues to shrink its workforce, this time focusing its efforts on Britain, where they announced another 1,700 administrative jobs based in the U.K. will be cut, which represents over 4 percent of its workforce presence there.
In a statement today, the company said jobs will be slashed in Southend, Sheffield and Southhampton. HSBC officials added that after things are restructured there should be a number of new jobs created.
“We will do everything we can to support those of our people who are directly affected and to minimize the number of redundancies,” said U.K. Chief Executive Officer Paul Thurston. “We have a good track record of redeployment and we will make every effort to maintain it.”
The specifically targeted administrative areas are in the collections and credit card unit, which will now be reduced to nine in the country. Most, but not all of the jobs will be eliminated there. Workers in the back office among branches will be the other areas where cuts will be made. The majority of the jobs are reportedly lower paying positions.
Other bad news was recently announced in Britain’s banking industry, as the Royal Bank of Scotland Group said recently it would be cutting about 3,700 jobs across the U.K. as well. That brings the total job losses at the company to close to 20,000 since last year.
HSBC employs approximately 300,000 workers globally, with 40,000 of those residing in the U.K.
