By KATE KELLY
January 24, 2008 12:56 p.m.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB120119289230313703.html?mod=googlenews_wsjThe brokerage firm Morgan Stanley is set to lay off about 1,000 people in a 2% reduction of its nearly 50,000 member global work force.
"The firm is engaged in an ongoing process of assessing its personnel needs in light of overall market conditions, business priorities and individual performance," said a Morgan spokesman. The effort "will involved headcount reductions in some areas," he added, "and additions in others."
Cutbacks will take place in the firm's wealth-management unit, say people familiar with the plans, and will affect primarily U.S. based back-office employees in technology, operations, and support functions. The layoffs will not touch the firm's institutional securities area, which includes sales and trading and investment banking, these people said.
News of the layoffs was first reported by CNBC television. In midmorning New York Stock Exchange composite trading, Morgan shares were down about 2%, at $50.77.