American Express to Cut 4,000 Jobs

American Express Will Slash 4,000 Jobs, Take Charge (Update1)
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By Hugh Son

May 18 (Bloomberg) -- American Express Co., the largest U.S. credit-card company by purchases, will cut about 6 percent of its workforce as cardholders squeezed by rising unemployment fail to pay debts.

American Express will take a charge of $180 million to $250 million in the second quarter, mostly tied to severance and other costs from eliminating 4,000 positions, the New York-based company said today in a statement.

The cuts, with 7,000 eliminations announced in October, may save about $2 billion in expenses this year, the company said. American Express has had to set aside more reserves for failed loans as surging U.S. unemployment makes it harder for customers to pay debt. The jobless rate reached 8.5 percent in March, a 25-year high.

“We continue to be very cautious about the economic outlook and are therefore moving forward with additional re- engineering efforts to help further reduce our operating costs,” Chief Executive Officer Kenneth Chenault said today in the statement.

To contact the reporter on this story: Hugh Son in New York at hson1@bloomberg.net

Last Updated: May 18, 2009 18:05 EDT

This is a plus for both the rental and sales market. Buy now...

what makes you so sure the cuts will be in NY? The cuts will likely be in Delaware since that is credit card company central.

OK, is it me, or is that the stupidest thing Alpine has ever said (beyond the "show me just one apartment down 20%" line).

Because other companies are in Delaware, Amex is going to cut jobs there?

Do you flush your neighbor's toilet when you pee?

Apparently he forgot that Amex's headquarters is at 3 World Financial Center. Which is in Manhattan, not Delaware.

Does this mean I can skip my AmEx payment this month?

I use to work at Amex.....everyone eventually gets laid off from that company but they have very good severance packages.....and yes, they are located in the world financial center but have large offices in phoenix, south florida, utah and major world markets

AmEx has offices in Delaware:

American Express Credit Corporation (American Express)
301 N Walnut St Ste 1002, Wilmington, DE 19801-2917

Just because a compnay has a HQ in NYC does not mean that is where the layoffs will be.

the delaware office has virtually no employees from what i remember.....most cc companies need the delaware address for business purposes......the layoffs im sure will be spread all over the world.....so nyc wont be hit by all of them....

What use for facts and logic does alpine have?

Let just say some will be in NYC and some will be at other locations. Overall economy is still going to be hurting for a long time. Next.

mhillqt is correct - that DE address is just for mailing purposes. Like 80% of corporations in the US have DE mailing addresses.