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UPDATE: Wells Fargo Lays Off More Than 700 Oregon Employees
Wells Fargo is pulling out of its three Oregon Global Operations business branches, placing the jobs of 1,035 employees in jeopardy. The bank has announced that it will withdraw from Oregon before the end of 2025.
Unconfirmed staff numbers are 520 in Hillsboro, 200 in Salem, and 315 at the downtown Portland Wells Fargo building. Over 400 employees have been laid off at the bank’s Hillsboro branch since 2022.
The bank’s Oregon offices focus on collections, fraud prevention, customer service, collections, and back-office support.
The Bank Will Be Consolidating Operations Near Major Cities
Employees were told in February that the bank will consolidate its operations into target areas near major cities such as New York, San Francisco, Phoenix, Salt Lake City, St. Louis, and Charlotte.
It is not clear how many of the 1,035 workers will lose their jobs, but Wells Fargo says it will offer posts to many of the Oregon staff members who are prepared to move away from their homes.
Bloomberg reported earlier this month that Wells Fargo workers claim layoffs are sought to disrupt union effort.
Wells Fargo Will Give Staff at Least 60 Days’ Notice
Wells Fargo executive Michael Grossberg told employees in an email in June that the company has decided to consolidate its operations in fewer locations. He said employees will be given at least 60 days’ notice.
Wells Fargo has not revealed if it will retain a presence in the Wells Fargo Center, the tallest building in Portland.
In a statement on Thursday, Wells Fargo said that it works to identify other opportunities within the company for employees to retain as many people as possible and, when not possible, offers career and severance counseling.
The statement says that Wells Fargo regularly reviews and adjusts its employee quota to ‘align with market conditions’ and business needs.
On its quarterly call with investment analysts last month, Wells Fargo executives described staff cutbacks as ‘ongoing efficiency initiatives.’ They said the global workforce has been reduced over the previous 17 quarters, slashing the Wells Fargo headcount by 20% over the past four years.
Oregon has reeled under several large staff cutbacks by major employers in recent months – 740 people lost their jobs at the Nike headquarters in Beaverton in April, and state residents were among the 1,300 people laid off by Intel last week at its Washington campus.
Despite job losses impacting the families of thousands of Oregon workers, the state retained a low unemployment rate of 4% in September.
However, downtown Portland has been hard-hit with one of the nation’s highest office vacancy rates, exacerbated last month when the U.S. Bank announced that it would be leaving its 222,000 square feet of office space in the Big Pink tower.
Myself and three coworkers at the Hillsboro, Barnehart Ctr were in the first round of cuts. Our manager is in St Louis in the Wealth Management Division. It doesn’t surprise me that Hillsboro will shut down.