There's a joke here somewhere......................
Tuesday January 30, 1:25 pm Eastern Time
Charles Schwab plans to ask some staff to take Fridays off
NEW YORK, Jan 30 (Reuters) - Charles Schwab & Co. (NYSE:SCH - news), the No. 1 U.S. discount and Internet brokerage firm, will ask some employees to take Fridays off over the next two months as it tries to cut costs as trading commissions fall, a Schwab spokesman told Reuters.
San Francisco-based Schwab, which has about 7.5 million brokerage accounts, will ask some of its 26,000 U.S. employees to take unpaid leave or a vacation on Feb. 2, Feb. 16 and March 2, said Schwab spokesman Dan Hubbard.
The firm is not planning full layoffs, Hubbard said.
Earlier this month, Schwab said fourth-quarter profits fell 27 percent, below expectations, largely due to a drop in brokerage commissions.
The move follows rival Ameritrade's (NasdaqNM:AMTD - news) announcement earlier this month that it would cut 230 jobs, or 9 percent of its workforce.
Cost-cutting efforts have come to the fore recently in the highly competitive brokerage business as stock trading has slowed across the board in the face of an economic slowdown and weak corporate profits.
Hubbard did not say how many employees the plan would affect, or how much Schwab hoped to save. The plan would not include critical or customer service staff and would not affect Schwab's service levels, he added.
The novel move is an extension of Schwab's cost-cutting plans announced last month, which included cutting down on travel expenses and senior staff taking pay cuts.
Schwab stock was down $1.19 at $27.39 on the New York Stock Exchange early Tuesday afternoon. |
