JLL Cuts Staff As Part Of ‘Global Transformation’
Commercial brokerage giant JLL instituted a round of layoffs on Tuesday, Bisnow has learned.
Multiple sources told Bisnow that employees in New York City and Chicago were told they were losing their jobs throughout the day Tuesday. A JLL spokesperson confirmed the unspecified number of layoffs in an emailed statement to Bisnow Tuesday evening.
"JLL is continuing with measures which were already underway to align our operational structure with our global transformation and reinforce our focus on managing costs," the spokesperson wrote. "These actions may include the difficult but necessary decision to make specific roles within our operation redundant. We are confident that the strength and resilience of our diversified business will enable us to continue to support our people during this uncertain time and deliver long-term value to our clients and shareholders."
JLL had already spent $9.3M in severance costs in the third quarter, it disclosed in its earnings report, which was an eightfold increase over the previous year. A spokesperson for JLL at the time denied that meant the firm was reducing its headcount.
The firm said it expects to miss its previous projections for earnings this year, but it posted $140.2M in net income in the third quarter, down 41% from last year.
“Our clients are now asking us more than ever for advice,” JLL Chief Financial Officer Karen Brennan said on the Nov. 2 earnings call. “And so we're certainly being rigorous in terms of pulling back on discretionary spending and being really focused on our costs. But we also are making sure we're balancing that we have the talent and the people that are meeting with our clients who are asking for advice right now.”
JLL is the latest company to institute layoffs as the global economy slows.
Its biggest rival, CBRE, said in an investor presentation last month that it plans to reduce costs by $400M, $300M of which would be permanent cuts, largely in the form of staff reductions. The bulk of those layoffs was expected to happen by the end of Q1 2023.
None of the other publicly traded brokerages, such as Newmark, Colliers and Cushman & Wakefield, specifically referenced layoffs in their earnings reports, although all said they had experienced a slowdown in sales and lending activity and would look to — or already had — cut costs as a result.
In other segments of the industry, residential brokerages Compass and Redfin have laid off hundreds of staffers this year, as have real estate tech firms like Zillow, Opendoor and Better.com.
This month has already been defined by huge rounds of layoffs at technology firms, with Meta Platforms announcing it is letting go of 11,000 workers; Twitter cutting 3,700, or half of its workforce; and Amazon reportedly cutting 10,000 employees.
