From The ABC comes news that the Big Four Australian banks have axed thousands of jobs, with automation to cause further job losses:
Banks are thousands of staff off peak levels…
In 2008, the Commonwealth Bank employed 39,621 full-time equivalent employees, a number that rose to 46,000 four years ago, before falling back to 43,771 last year.
In the same period, Westpac’s workforce shot up from 26,000 to as high as 40,000 three years ago following the takeover of St George Bank, before falling to its current level of 35,000.
ANZ’s staff levels also fluctuated wildly: from 36,925 in 2008 up to more than 50,000 in 2014 and 2015, before the unwinding of its desire to be a “super regional” bank in the Asia-Pacific area. Last year it had 39,924 full-time equivalent staff.
By market capitalisation — the value of a company’s shares multiplied by the number on offer — NAB is the smallest of the nation’s largest banks. From a decade ago, when NAB had 39,729 staff, it rose to almost 45,000 by 2011, falling back to 33,283 by the time of last year’s annual report…
‘Algorithmed’ out of a job
Spiralling investment in technology has created opportunities for banks, but the impact has been felt by staff…
“I think the workforces of the big four will continue to shrink,” [Analyst Brett Le Mesurier] said.
“Obviously NAB’s decline is going to be the most significant.
“Revenue growth has been a problem for all the banks, so that puts pressure on costs … and pressure on costs means people are going to lose their jobs.”
Between 1 to 2 per cent of each institution’s workforce is in the firing line, each year, according to the long-time industry watcher.
“When you think about the number of people involved, being that they employ 40,000 or 50,000 people, a 1 per cent reduction is 400-500 people losing their jobs at each bank [every year] … so there’s a lot of people that can be adversely affected by this.”
Given that Australian banks are so heavily leveraged into housing, and the housing market is facing years of sluggish (if any) real price growth, revenue growth will remain soft, leading to ongoing pressure to cut costs and jobs.
