The leaders of the world's largest asset manager (also the world's largest ETF shop) by AUM are preparing to trim, after a volatile 2022 in both equities and fixed income markets.

Laurence D. "Larry" Fink BlackRock Chairman, CEO

Word is that Larry Fink, CEO of BlackRock [profile], and Rob Kapito, BlackRock's president, sent a memo to staff earlier today to reveal that they plan to cut about 500 employees. That translates into about 2.5 percent of the New York City-based, publicly traded firm's headcount.

A BlackRock spokesperson was not immediately able to comment on the layoffs or the memo. Yet BlackRock's Q4 2022 earnings report and earnings call, both scheduled for Friday, may shed more light on the staff cuts.

BlackRock had about 19,900 employees as of September 30, 2022. Even after a 500-person cut, the firm would still be nearly eight-percent bigger (by headcount) than it was on December 31, 2021 (when the firm had more than 18,000 employees). Meanwhile, in the 12 months ending September 30, 2022, BlackRock's AUM fell 16 percent to $7.961 trillion, despite net inflows.

"The uncertainty around us makes it more important than ever that we stay ahead of changes in the market and focus on delivering for our clients," Kapito and Fink wrote in today's memo, according to Bloomberg. The news services reports that the cuts will be BlackRock's first since 2019, i.e. since before the COVID-19 pandemic hit the U.S. in force. 

Edited by: Neil Anderson, Managing Editor


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