Bank of America plans to cut 16,000 jobs by end of 2012

Major US financial services corporation Bank of America plans to slash 16,000 jobs by the end of the year as part of an extensive cost-cutting measure to make the institution more profitable.

Following the planned reduction in the Bank’s workforce, the multinational US company would no longer hold its current title as the American banking industry’s largest employer, the Wall Street Journal reported Wednesday.

The reported cost-cutting measure for the last six months of the year has been summarized in a financial document prepared for the Bank’s top administrators and described by the paper as “part of a larger effort to retool Bank of America into a leaner and more focused enterprise.”

According to the report, the planned reductions are geared towards making the second largest bank in the US take fewer risks and generate greater revenue from current clients.

The development comes a day after major US passenger airliner, American Airlines, announced plans to cut 11,000 of its workforce as part of a bankruptcy restructuring measure.

Meanwhile, the US Labor Department announced earlier this week that the number of Americans filing for unemployment benefits has jumped to the highest level in the past two months, as the number of applications climbed by 15,000 to a seasonally adjusted figure of 382,000.

The rate of joblessness in the US has remained persistently high in the past years and described by top American financial analysts as a major hurdle to the country’s economic recovery.