Fidelity cuts staff

For the first time since 2017, financial services giant Fidelity Investments is thinning its ranks. The Boston-based firm, among the city’s largest employers, cut approximately 700 jobs earlier this month, representing less than 1 percent of its worldwide workforce of 74,000-plus employees, a spokesperson confirmed to the Globe. “While difficult, this decision better positions us for the evolving needs of our customers, even during times of growth, and ensuring we remain competitive for years to come,” the spokesperson said in a statement. “Our goal is to ensure we always have the right number of employees in the right roles to meet clients’ needs.” The spokesperson declined to specify the number of Massachusetts employees who were affected, but said that the “impact to different states/sites was generally proportional to the total number of employees based at that regional site.” By that math, roughly 55 of Fidelity’s 5,860 employees in Massachusetts would have been impacted. The layoffs follow several years of turbocharged hiring for the money management titan, which has grown its workforce by upward of 50 percent since 2020, when it initiated a hiring spree in the throes of the COVID-19 pandemic — and the widespread financial anxieties that came with it. The cuts also come on the heels of a strong financial year for Fidelity, which reported $28.2 billion in revenue for 2023, up 12 percent from 2022, the firm disclosed in its annual report. Operating income grew 6 percent to $8.5 billion. The spokesperson noted that economic headwinds, including “strong markets and higher interest rates,” have boded well for Fidelity, which is still actively hiring for nearly 2,000 open roles in “critical business areas.” Last month, the company, which is headquartered downtown at 245 Summer St., announced it would be tightening its return-to-office requirements come September, requiring most employees in the United States to work on-site two full weeks out of every four, up from the current cadence of one week out of every four.