Kaja Whitehouse

USA TODAY

NEW YORK -- Goldman Sachs filed paperwork with New York State's Department of Labor recently saying it has laid off 43 people who will leave the firm starting in May.

Wall Street pay takes a hit, braces for deeper cuts

A person with direct knowledge of the cuts, who was not authorized to speak on the record, said the 43 layoffs are part of the bank's larger annual trimming. Goldman Sachs is known to trim its workforce annually — to the tune of at least 5% — by getting rid of people it deems to be underperformers.

At the end of 2015, Goldman employed 36,800 people, up 8% from the year before.

But the cuts also come at a time when investors are closely watching big banks for signs of a slowdown in business. Large banks face growing fears, reflected in their falling stock prices, that low interest rates, rising defaults and other fallout of slowing economy could crimp profits this year — and potentially for years to come.

Goldman shares are down 13% this year, closing Thursday at $155.33 a share.

Morgan Stanley targets $1B in cost savings

Bloomberg News, which first reported on Goldman's filing, said this year's cutbacks will affect 5% of Goldman's fixed-income trading desk, which has suffered from an industry-wide slowdown in trading sales. Banks that help large clients trade have seen clients shy away from bonds, commodities and currencies due to falling oil prices and uncertainty over the direction of interest rates .

In the fourth-quarter, Goldman said revenue from fixed income, currency and commodities client execution dropped 13%. For the year, Goldman reported revenue across its businesses of $33.8 billion, down 2% over the previous year.

Morgan Stanley, which has also suffered a slowdown in trading, eliminated 1,200 jobs last year and exited certain areas of trading, such as Asian distressed debt.

Goldman Sachs earnings dinged on trading, legal costs

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