Amex Announces Further Job Cuts

American Express today said it is eliminating about 6,000 jobs this quarter, primarily from its travel businesses, and incurring a special restructuring charge of about $250 million, primarily to cover severance and real estate charges that reflect the cuts. A significant portion of the layoffs already have been made by working with customers to consolidate onsite and call center agents where appropriate, according to spokeswoman Melissa Abernathy, who added that many small and midsize travel accounts have signed call center contracts in the past few months.

In a statement that fulfilled the public disclosure required by the Federal Commerce Commission, American Express said, "at Travel Related Services, billed business volumes are down from last year, but have shown a stronger than expected rebound from the latter part of September." Amex said billings were down from last year about 14 percent in September, 10 percent in October and 6 percent in November.

Amex also said it already had notified half of the employees who are being affected. "U.S. corporate travel already has contributed to a significant portion of that cut," said Abernathy said, who expected that most of the remaining cuts would come from operations outside of the United States.