By Anirudh Saligrama

BlackRock has announced layoffs that would impact less than 1% of its workforce as a result of budget reallocations to support critical priorities, according to a memo seen by Reuters on Thursday.

The investment management firm has about 19,500 employees across more than 30 countries.

BlackRock had cut 500 jobs earlier this year while reshaping its teams, joining several Wall Street titans in slimming their ranks to save costs amid an economic downturn caused by higher interest rates, volatile markets and geopolitical tensions.

The company's new round of job cuts followed a recent business review process, Chief Operating Officer Rob Goldstein and Global Head of Human Resources Caroline Heller said in a memo to staff.

The departments impacted were not known immediately, but the asset manager's headcount will be higher at the end of 2023 than at the beginning of the year despite the job cuts, the memo said.

On Wednesday, JPMorgan Chase cut around 20 investment banking jobs in Asia in a fresh round of layoffs, Reuters had reported, citing a source with direct knowledge of the matter.

(Reporting by Anirudh Saligrama in Bengaluru; Editing by Devika Syamnath)