JLL Plans More Layoffs This Year As Profits Shrink

JLL is preparing for another round of layoffs in the wake of weak performance during the fourth quarter of 2022, the company said Tuesday. JLL reported a 59% drop in net income for Q4 2022, from $421M a year earlier to $175M.

During the company's most recent earnings call, JLL Chief Financial Officer Karen Brennan said the real estate services giant is pursuing $140M in cost savings, $125M of which will be this year. 

“It's primarily related to reductions in compensation and benefits from the restructuring of our business, so reductions in headcount,” Brennan said when asked for more detail about the cost savings.

She did not specify how many workers would be affected, in what parts of the multinational business or how many more of these cuts would come on top of those the company made in the fourth quarter.

Brennan did say the cuts would be “primarily nonproducer headcount, and ... associated with positions that we really no longer require as we shifted our business operating model from a geographic to the business line focus.”

In general, brokerages use the term "producer" to refer to leasing and sales agents, as opposed to support staff functions like marketing, operations and research.

JLL did not respond to a query from Bisnow on Wednesday asking to quantify the job cuts mentioned in the earnings call.

The company reported Tuesday that its severance and other employment-related costs jumped to $44.5M in 2022, up from $14.3M in 2021.

The redundancies are coming after CRE investment sales dropped marketwide, and other major real estate firms, such as CBRE, Cushman & Wakefield and Marcus & Millichap have likewise axed staff.