Layoffs Watch '08: Credit Suisse

Credit Suisse announced this morning that it will be cutting 500 jobs in investment banking and “administrative support” divisions. Spokesman Bruce Corwin claimed the layoffs are due to shrinking client demand, though one might note the “coincidence” between the start of the tortuously long summer lines at the Shake Shack and a sudden reduction in headcount. Luckily, for any interns tasked with spending three quarters of his/her June/July/August waiting to order someone else’s Shroom Burger, we’re told that the cuts are worse than what’s being reported. Supposedly over half the real estate finance group “will be gone before the end of the day,” and there will be “severe carnage” across the entire firm. Severance packages are said to include two months pay, period.
On the bright side, let’s give it up for whoever’s idea it was to break the layoffs news (and the inevitability forthcoming news of blown earnings) on the same day rival Swiss bank UBS came out with a fifty page report detailing in easy bullet-proof form* how it went about systematically destroying value over the last year or so. That was smart. Very smart.
Credit Suisse Says It's Cutting 500 Jobs as Client Demand Wanes [Bloomberg]
*Helpful for anyone interested in following suit but unsure where to start.