Saturday, November 8, 2008

Fidelity to lay off 1,300 employees

Fidelity Investments, the mutual fund company that’s pushing into the Triangle in a big way, will lay off around 1,300 people worldwide in the face of the economic downturn.

The company said Thursday that the cuts represent 3 percent of its 44,400-person work force. It was no immediately clear how the layoffs would affect the more than 2,500 Fidelity employees in the Triangle.

A second round of layoffs will come in the first quarter of next year, the company says, but it’s yet to work out the details.

“Global economic conditions and the unsettled nature of the world's stock markets all year long have required businesses around the globe and across all industries to examine their operations and make adjustments,” the company said in a statement. “Fidelity executives have been carefully reviewing their work units and prioritizing their business initiatives in order to ensure the company is well-positioned for the future.”

Fidelity said in August 2006 that it would add 2,000 employees to its Triangle operations in return for state and local incentives. The company has since boosted its work force to more than 2,500, from 1,000 and it expects to have 3,000 employees in Research Triangle Park by 2010.

The company is currently in the midst of building a 260-acre campus in RTP that’s expected to be complete by 2009.

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