Goldman Sachs Firing In U.S., Hiring In Singapore June 30, 2011 by Marcy Bonebright
Goldman Sachs is reportedly firing U.S. employees in order to hire 1,000 people in Singapore.
Goldman Sachs is cutting jobs in the United States so it can expand in Singapore. The company, which received $10 billion in preferred stock purchases from the Federal government under the Troubled Asset Relief Program, alerted Washington to the move first, in order to avoid controversy.
“Goldman is so concerned about the potential for criticism that the firm’s representatives have been alerting staffers of lawmakers in Washington of the hiring spree in recent weeks as a way to mollify any concerns they may have about previously undisclosed plans to add 1,000 jobs to the firm’s Singapore office, according to people in Washington with direct knowledge if the matter,” read an article on FoxBusiness.com, which broke the news. “Goldman is concerned about criticism because it is adding those jobs while it is planning what could be a significant retrenchment in its U.S. workforce, these people say.”
The firm reportedly plans to slash $1 billion in costs during the upcoming year, with most of the cuts coming from its U.S. operations. The article suggested the move is indicative of Wall Street’s negative view of the current regulatory environment.
“Firms like Goldman have to conform to a plethora of new and costly regulations that came as a result of the 2008 financial collapse, and the massive government bailout of the big financial firms that followed,” the article read. “Those regulations, found primarily in the Dodd/Frank financial reform bill… have forced banks to hold higher capital reserves to protect against losses, and also forced them to exit some lucrative businesses like proprietary trading.”
