Wachovia to slash 10,000 jobs

CHARLOTTE, N.C. -- Mecklenburg County’s second-largest employer said Tuesday it would cut nearly 11,000 jobs as Wachovia announced a second quarter loss of $8.9 billion.

The bank employs more than 20,000 people, ranking just under Carolinas Healthcare System in number of workers, according to data from the Charlotte Chamber.

Many of Wachovia’s positions are expected to be trimmed from the company’s Charlotte offices, said Dr. Tony Plath, an associate professor of finance at UNC-Charlotte.

“Any way you look at it today is not a good day for the Charlotte labor market,” Plath said, adding that he anticipated as many as 4,000 of the layoffs to come from Wachovia’s operations in Mecklenburg County.

Analysts have said Wachovia is now an attractive takeover target for other financial institutions including J.P. Morgan Chase and Wells Fargo.

A merger could result in several thousand additional layoffs in Charlotte, Plath said.

The loss of so many white-collar jobs is expected to have a “trickle-down” effect on the region’s economy.

Joanna Sikotis, owner of Green’s lunch, an uptown restaurant which has operated a hot dog stand on the Wachovia plaza since 1990, said she has noticed bankers are cutting back on their spending.

“When a big company like Wachovia has problems then that will affect us even more,” she said. “All of the restaurants are having problems.”

Mecklenburg’s real-estate market and service industries will likely see a negative impact from the Wachovia layoffs, Plath said.

The bank’s neighbor on Tryon could offset some of the job losses, he said. Bank of America has indicated they will hire as many as 500 additional employees as the company expands some of its business units.