KBRA Financial Intelligence

Latest Payrolls Data Suggests Bank Job Cuts May Continue

The Bureau of Labor Statistics’ (BLS) nonfarm payroll report for February, which pointed to a net loss in U.S. jobs across the economy, indicated that the year-over-year (YoY) change in finance and insurance employment posted yet another decline last Friday. Throughout the past 12 months, total finance and insurance employment—excluding central bank jobs—has fallen by a cumulative 19,700 positions.

Although the insurance carriers and related activities subcategory is responsible for the bulk of the drop-off in the category’s employment, the depository credit intermediation category, which encompasses commercial banking, has also experienced a moderate decline in jobs over the past year.

BLS numbers for the first two months of the year indicate that bank call report data related to full-time employment levels could show another leg down when 1Q 2026 data is published later this year. KBRA Financial Intelligence (KFI) has previously noted that U.S. bank employment has fallen at a steady pace since a recent peak in 1Q 2023—now down roughly 81,000 jobs throughout that period.

The latest Federal Financial Institutions Examination Council (FFIEC) call report data analyzed by KFI shows full-time employment across more than 4,400 U.S. commercial and savings banks fell by a net 4,076 positions YoY in 4Q 2025—the eighth annual decline throughout the past nine quarters of data. Recent declines have been markedly narrower than those recorded in 2023 and 2024, suggesting that a consolidation of the commercial banking workforce could be slowing, but the ongoing implementation of AI within the industry could continue to shrink headcount at some banks. Separate data from the BLS’s job openings dataset showed that job openings among firms in the finance and insurance category had fallen to just 134,000 in December 2025—the lowest level recorded since 2012.

An interesting wrinkle in the latest finance and insurance industry payroll data is that, despite declines in all other subcategories, the number of jobs in securities, commodity contracts, investments, and funds and trusts has surged throughout the past 12 months, adding a net 40,200 positions. This likely helps to explain how bank holding companies’ (BHC) nonbank affiliates have largely kept headcount stable throughout the past several years while commercial bank headcount has atrophied.

These subsidiaries—often dominated by securities firms, which include broker-dealers, asset managers, and investment advisers—have collectively increased head count by 15,600 between 1Q 2023 and 4Q 2025. Several years of consistent equity market performance has contributed to surging income within institutions’ sales and trading businesses, while investment banking deal volumes and revenue have staged a recovery throughout 2025-26. If resilient growth in these lines of business continues, it is possible that any further reductions to bank-related workforces remain concentrated within commercial bank operations.