Wells Fargo is cutting more than 100 positions in the Sacramento area, telling California officials the move is part of a larger effort to squeeze more efficiency out of the bank. Staff at the company’s Arden-Arcade campus were informed the layoffs are permanent, with product and customer support teams expected to bear the brunt of the reductions, as reported by The Sacramento Bee.
Notice Filed With State Lists 114 Job Losses
According to The Sacramento Bee, Wells Fargo filed a Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification with the California Employment Development Department on Friday stating it will eliminate 114 positions in Sacramento County. The filing says the cuts affect employees in the bank’s chief operating office and its consumer, small and business banking divisions at the Arden-Arcade campus, and that workers were notified the same day the notice went in.
CEO Says AI Is Reshaping How Work Gets Done
While the pink slips were going out locally, Wells Fargo CEO Charlie Scharf was telling investors at a Goldman Sachs conference that generative AI is making the bank’s tech teams significantly more productive. He said the tools have made engineering groups about 30% to 35% more efficient at writing code and that overall headcount is expected to shrink as AI is deployed more widely.
“We’ve not reduced the number of people we have coding today, but we’re getting a lot more done,” Scharf said, signaling that additional job cuts and higher severance costs are coming in the fourth quarter. As reported by Reuters, he described the technology as a “positive reality” that could reshape roles in compliance, call centers and other banking services.
Bank: Severance And Career Help Promised
In its official notice and in messages to local officials, Wells Fargo said the job cuts are permanent but that affected employees will receive severance pay and access to career counseling, according to the Bee. A company spokesperson told The Sacramento Bee that Wells Fargo “regularly calibrates its workforce to align with market conditions and the needs of our businesses.”
Where This Fits Within Broader Cuts
The latest Sacramento layoffs land in the middle of a multiyear downsizing at the bank. Wells Fargo’s global headcount has dropped from about 275,000 employees in 2019 to roughly 210,000 today, and executives have said they plan to keep pushing for efficiencies as AI tools roll out across more parts of the company.
Reuters reports that Scharf told investors the bank’s budgeting process had already assumed fewer employees even before this latest phase of AI deployment, and that Wells Fargo expects to record higher severance charges this quarter…