Fidelity reported set to start layoffs

The Wall Street Journal reports that 200 employees could receive layoff notices Thursday. The cuts could be just the first in a series of staff reductions that could hit areas such as information technology and retirement services.

James Lowell, editor of the independent Fidelity Investor newsletter, told the paper he's expecting the largest number of layoffs Fidelity has made in years. According to the report, the company cut 1,695 jobs, or what was then about 5 percent of staff, in 2002, but it has since built up its work force substantially to about 46,000.

A 5 percent reduction today would eliminate 2,300 jobs, while a 1,700-job reduction would represent a 3.7 percent cut.

Fidelity President Rodger Lawson wrote a memo to employees in September in which he said the firm must "curb expenses where they are wasteful, not only to avoid waste, but to compete - and win - against some very tough rivals in an unforgiving marketplace."

Boston-based Fidelity is a unit of privately-held FMR Corp.