Wells Fargo has announced its latest round of layoffs at its West Des Moines campus, this time affecting 62 workers and taking effect May 30, according to the state’s Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification, or WARN, site.
The latest listing brings the company’s total announced layoffs in eight rounds since September to 286. The San Francisco-based bank has cut 1,537 jobs in 96 announced layoffs in the Des Moines metro since April 2022, according to WARN data, with many more jobs lost to attrition.
A previously announced layoff in February of 49 employees goes into effect Saturday, April 4.
The company did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Friday but in the past has said it regularly reviews and adjusts staffing levels to align with market conditions and strives to find opportunities for affected employees in other parts of the company whenever possible.
The ongoing layoffs at Wells Fargo are not unexpected. CEO Charlie Scharf has continuously cautioned that there will be additional workforce cuts and that artificial intelligence will change the way the company’s business works.
Scharf has said in previous statements that the expected workforce decline reflects Wells Fargo’s push for efficiency. The bank had 275,000 employees when Scharf joined in 2019 and had pared back 65,000 by the end of September 2025.
The latest Des Moines metro layoff notices did not indicate in which divisions Wells Fargo was reducing jobs, and the company has declined to specify when asked in connection with previous layoffs. Its home mortgage division, heavily concentrated in the Des Moines metro, has throttled back amid higher interest rates and lower demand, and the company has sold its once-extensive downtown office complex, concentrating its workers at the Jordan Creek facility.
Wells Fargo is the nation’s fourth largest bank, with about $1.77 trillion in assets, but is still less than half the size of the biggest bank, JPMorgan Chase which has more than $3.8 trillion in assets.
Reuters contributed to this article.
Kevin Baskins covers jobs and the economy for the Des Moines Register. Reach him at kbaskins@registermedia.com.
This article originally appeared on Des Moines Register: Wells Fargo announces even more Des Moines metro layoffs
Reporting by Kevin Baskins, Des Moines Register / Des Moines Register
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