More detail on WaMu job cuts

More than 1,000 Washington Mutual Bank employees are losing their jobs in Irvine and Chatsworth as acquirer JPMorgan Chase & Co. cuts 9,200 positions, a company spokesman said.

New York-based JPMorgan agreed in September to pay $1.9 billion for Washington Mutual after the Seattle-based savings and loan, choking on soured home loans, became the largest U.S. banking institution ever seized by regulators.

In announcing the 9,200 job cuts Monday, Chase and Washington Mutual officials said no figures were available immediately for the Southland.

But today Washington Mutual spokesman Gary Kishner said 571 jobs would be eliminated in Irvine and 478 in Chatsworth.

The positions are primarily in back-office functions such as technology, human resources and marketing, Kishner said. JPMorgan has said it plans no closures of Washington Mutual branches in California.

About half the Southland employees whose positions were eliminated were given 60 days’ severance pay. The other half will continue to work during a transitional period but will lose their jobs by the end of next year. They will receive double pay for staying on.

-- E. Scott Reckard

Comments

[Piotr Orloff]

I'm surprised! I would have thought WaMu wouldn't have had to take such a big fall, even with their housing exposure. Now they are just firewood for a larger house. Things that make you go "Hmmm!"