Citigroup is to slash its worldwide workforce by 52,000, reducing the number of employees to 300,000. Mostly those job losses would come from the sell off of various bank divisions. This is on top of the 23,000 workers Citigroup has already cut this year. It is all part of the attempt by the second largest US bank to return to profitability. Chief Executive Vikram Pandit, announcing the job cuts, said Citi will reduce spending by up to 20 percent next year.

Citigroup has been hard hit by the US subprime mortgage meltdown and subsequent housing market collapse which triggered the global financial crisis. The bank has posted heavy losses in the last four quarters. The CEO added the bank’s top executives had bought 1.3 million shares to show confidence in the company. Those shares have fallen in value by over two thirds this year.

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