Bank of America Mum on Baltimore Job Cuts

If Bank of America employees in the Baltimore area are feeling anxious about their jobs these days, the company is doing little to reassure them.

Cause for anxiety was confirmed late last week when the Wall Street Journal disclosed internal bank documents that indicate the giant company is cutting 3,500 jobs in the next five weeks, and that there is a potential of further cuts beyond that.

Despite the disclosure, the company has yet to provide any information about the locations or other details of the cuts.

Bank of America spokeswoman Nicole Nastacie said Tuesday the company “is eliminating approximately 3,500 positions across most of the lines of business this quarter. These are in addition to about 2,500 reductions made so far this year.”

Nastacie specified that the bank would release no information about the numbers or locations of Maryland job cuts.

Maryland Labor Secretary Alexander M. Sanchez said late last week the state agency had not been contacted by Bank of America about any new job cuts in the state. A spokeswoman for Sanchez added Tuesday that no contact had been made so far this week.

But local bank employees have already begun to feel some of the pain.

In March, the company told the Maryland Department of Labor, Licensing and Regulation that it would eliminate 39 positions at its Hunt Valley credit card processing location. Another 18 job cuts were announced in April at its location in Columbia.

Bank of America has some 4,000 employees in Maryland, with about half of these located in Baltimore City and Baltimore County, according to the state Department of Business and Economic Development . Across the state, the bank has 189 branches or other offices.

Although a large private sector employer by local standards, Bank of America’s Maryland operations are tiny compared to its global operations. Recent reports from the company estimated total worldwide employment at the company at about 288,000 individuals.

Bank of America’s desire to cut employment costs appear to be related to the company’s ill-fated 2008 decision to purchase mortgage giant Countrywide Financial. As a result of mortgage losses and related expenses, the bank reported a loss of $8.8 billion in the second quarter of this year .

The 6,000 job cuts so far this year do not appear to be end of the problem for bank employees. The Charlotte Observer reports that the Charlotte, N.C.,-base bank is preparing a new round of job cuts to be finalized later this year. The new round of cuts is reported to call for the elimination of another 10,000 jobs.