Citigroup Goes on Hiring Spree Amid Huge Layoffs in Tech and Crypto Industries

Citigroup has announced its intention to hire 4,000 new staff reversing the trend of layoffs in the industry.

The company noted that the move was made to keep up with the digital demands of institutional clients after the harsh effects of the pandemic.

Jonathan Lofthouse, head of markets and enterprise risk technology for Citigroup, said in an interview that a third of the newly employed staff will join the markets technology team as part of efforts the company is making to gain a foothold in the space. 

Since the pandemic, companies moved the bulk of their operations digitally and Lofthouse argues that going back to the old ways might prove impossible.

“Everyone in lockdown suddenly had to do everything digitally, whether that was getting groceries delivered or watching Netflix,” he said. “We’ve always seen the tech markets to be competitive but particularly at the moment, coming out of a pandemic, we’ve seen a digital explosion across industries.”

Citigroup banks on digitization

“[Citigroup] is trying to digitize as much of our client experience as possible, front and back, and modernize our technology,” said Lofthouse. “Those firms that can digitize fastest are going to create competitive advantage.”

At the moment, the firm already has 30,000 software engineers on its books while other institutions are frantically making the transition to go all-in on a digital play. However, there might be a stumbling block as firms grapple with competition from Web3 companies for limited talent.

A breath of fresh air

Last month, data from Layoffs.fyi showed that tech terminations were at 15,764 and other months experienced similar metrics. In crypto, Mexican crypto exchange Bitso let go of 80 staff while Buenbit laid off a similar number of employees as the threat of recession bit.

Last week Coinbase announced the suspension of all hirings and even went as far as rescinding accepted job offers. The exchange stated that the move was a result of macro market conditions but the entire crypto industry received the news in a negative light.

“This is not a decision we make lightly, but it is necessary to ensure we are only growing in the highest-priority areas,” said L.J. Brock, Coinbase’s Chief People Officer.