The fund industry may be in for more cuts even as the stock market ascends. The Boston Globe reports that the industry has already axed roughly 5,700, or one-in-thirteen jobs, in Massachusetts alone (this is a count of job losses in the state's nonbanking investment since March 2001).

One exception in the Boston area has been Eaton Vance, according to the paper. The Globe quotes Bill Gillen, national sales director at Eaton Vance, as saying the firm has added sales staff in the past two years. Gillen points to the firm's core of money market and fixed income funds as a reason it has been able to avoid wielding the axe.

Layoffs may continue even if the stock market rebounds because top officials at firms have lost faith in the current markets ability to ride out the atmosphere of scandal. This is exactly the opposite of 2000, when fund firms put off making cuts because leaders expected a quick bounce back.

Perhaps, the current pessimism is a contrary indicator. We can only hope. 

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