Citigroup has announced plans to recruit 4,000 additional employees, reversing the industry’s layoff trend.
The company said that the decision was taken to meet the digital expectations of institutional customers after the devastating effects of the pandemic.
In an interview, Jonathan Lofthouse, Citigroup’s head of markets and enterprise risk technology, said that a third of the new employees would join the markets technology team as part of the company’s attempts to acquire a presence in the field.
Companies have transferred the majority of their activities online since the epidemic, and Lofthouse believes that going back to the old methods may be difficult.
“Everyone under lockdown had to do everything online, whether it was ordering groceries or watching Netflix,” he said. “We’ve always regarded the IT markets as competitive, but especially now, as we emerge from a pandemic, we’ve seen a digital boom across businesses.”
“[Citigroup] is attempting to digitise as much of our customer experience as possible, both front and back, and upgrade our technology,” Lofthouse said. “Those companies who can digitise the quickest will gain a competitive edge.”
Currently, the company has 30,000 software developers on its books, while other institutions are frantically preparing to go all-in on a digital play. However, there may be a stumbling block as enterprises compete for scarce talent with Web3 startups.
Last month, data from Layoffs.fyi indicated that there were 15,764 tech terminations, and previous months saw similar figures. As the possibility of a recession loomed, Mexican crypto exchange Bitso fired off 80 workers, while Buenbit laid off a similar number.
