JPMorgan Chase ($JPM) is slashing job postings ahead of earnings this week, as Wall Street braces for a likely recession and appears to be recalibrating to best navigate through one.
“The country was not adequately prepared for this pandemic,” JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon wrote to shareholders in his annual letter released Monday April 6, adding “it will include a bad recession combined with some kind of financial stress similar to the global financial crisis of 2008. Our bank cannot be immune to the effects of this kind of stress.”
Perhaps unsurprisingly, Dimon's bank has been slashing job postings in the last few weeks as it repositions. In the space of less than one month, JPMorgan job postings fell nearly 60%, largely due to the pandemic. But JPMorgan Chase is far from the only Wall Street institution to be reducing job postings in a time of extreme turbulence and uncertainty - top hedge funds and banks all over the world are doing the same.
JPMorgan's consumer banking presence, through it's more ubuiquitous Chase brand, has long helped it maintain an advantage in the crowded consumer space. However, now - and mapped out above, which users can take and highlight individual cities for further analysis - its 3,000+ branches have the potential to turn into a short-term cost overrun as the US consumer economy remains shut down.
Where JPMorgan may have an advantage is through consumers' phones - in spite of the branch shutdown. Already, JPMorgan's Chase app has become a leader in the space, amassing millions of (mostly positive) ratings - and if the bank continues to be able to drive more consumer business through its app, it may be less dependent on the map above, in the years ahead.
About the Data:
Thinknum tracks companies using the information they post online - jobs, social and web traffic, product sales and app ratings - and creates data sets that measure factors like hiring, revenue and foot traffic. Data sets may not be fully comprehensive (they only account for what is available on the web), but they can be used to gauge performance factors like staffing and sales.
