The U.S. banking sector experienced a net reduction of 4,395 full‑time equivalent (FTE) employees in 2025, with 31.5% of banks cutting staff while 49.9% expanded headcount.
Regulatory actions drove the downsizing at some institutions, while other banks leveraged restructuring to significantly improve capital strength and operational efficiency.
Workforce changes were unevenly distributed, reflecting divergent strategic and regulatory pressures across institutions.
Jumbo Rate News JRN 43:10
Nearly a Third of U.S. Banks Shed Employees in 2025
The banking industry lost a net of 4,395 full-time equivalent (FTE) employees during calendar 2025 as 31.5% of the industry reduced staff. Another 49.9% increased their FTE.
Three Big Banks lost 16,651 FTE employees during the year. That’s nearly four times the total net loss, so evidently many of those employees found new jobs at another bank. The three biggest job shedders of 2025 were:
Only 64 U.S. banks reported more than 2,920 FTE employees at the end of 2025; only 22 reported more than 10,000. If we were to concentrate on only those that lost the greatest number, the list on page 5 would be extremely heavy (70%) with Big Banks, which are covered extensively by mainstream press. Instead, we chose to focus more on the percentage lost.
Each of the 50 banks listed on page 5 ended calendar 2024 with at least 75 employees. By the end of 2025, they had each lost 11% (or more) of those employees. This gave us a list consisting of 74% community banks. None of the Big Three (above) are included, however. Both the number and the percent of lost FTE Employees are provided.
Community banks listed include:
3-Star Bank of England, England, AR (13303), which specializes in agricultural finance, has been a locally owned community bank in England, AR since 1898. Today it operates through a half dozen branch offices in the Little Rock vicinity and also has an extensive network of loan production facilities across the country.
In August 2023, Bank of England entered into a consent agreement with the FDIC relating to the sales practices at those loan facilities. Bank of England had seen the signs and began reigning in those practices long before the agreement was signed.
At the close of 2021, Bank of England had net loans of $342.864 million. By the end of 2023, that amount had been cut by 40%. By the end of 2025, those loans were down to $96.660 million, just 28% of the 2021 amount. Its employees have been cut even deeper—going from 1,248 at 12/31/2021 to just 106 FTE at 12/31/2025. That’s more than a 90% staff cut over five years.
2-Star Crescent Bank, Metairie, LA (33492), a one-time JRN listee, is also listed on page 5. Crescent Bank was introduced to our rate pages late last century, way before it landed on Bauer’s Troubled and Problematic Bank Report. (That didn’t happen until the fourth quarter of 2024.) The last time Crescent Bank’s rates were listed in JRN was in 2010.
Crescent Bank is also currently operating under a Consent Agreement with the FDIC. This agreement, effective January 24, 2025, requires higher capital ratios, greater allowances for credit losses and restricts dividend payouts. Satisfying it was going to require considerable belt-tightening.
To that end, effective October 10, 2025, Crescent permanently closed its office on Poydras Street in New Orleans. It also reduced the following over the course of 2025:
Additionally, Crescent Bank increased its equity capital by 12% during 2025, so its 13.0% leverage capital ratio (CR) and 16.8% Total Risk-Based CR are both above its new prescribed levels (11% and 15%, respectively).
Another result of all this belt-tightening is an extraordinary increase in efficiency as measured by assets per employee. At the end of 2024, Crescent Bank was well below average in this measure with just $4.419 million in assets per employee. The industry average was $11.75 million. By the end of 2025, Crescent Bank’s assets per employee had ballooned to $21.6 million, well above the $12.34 million industry average.
