Imagine if you found out there was an 18% chance you'd be fired by your company because it needs to cut costs. And now imagine if you found out through an article in the news.

That's exactly what may be happening at HSBC Bank ($HSBC). Lots of caveats there, since this is a three-year plan and nothing is official yet, but with so many jobs at stake, it's still a serious proposal. HSBC, at any given time, employs around 200,000 people, and you can see what slashing 15% of that would be like with our first chart.

After LinkedIn purged thousands of inaccurate zombie accounts, 189,000 employees are the current total we peg HSBC as having. If 35,000 people have to go, that would drop that number to 154,000, and of course, would affect hiring.

As confirmed by various sources, the goal is also to reallocate the focus and resources into Asia, instead of Europe. This will also impact the U.S., but the Paris-based bank will set its eyes towards China, the place the future inevitably lands on. No word on how the Coronavirus will affect the short term.

Job openings are up over the last three months, which will undoubtedly take a hit after this announcement. There's no telling what job positions will be targeted, or what kind of strategy the bank will go in three years from now, whether that's data analysis, computer learning, or just fewer tellers behind the desk. But a lot of people's lives are going to be affected very soon, and we'll keep you updated with anything we find in the data moving forward.

About the Data:

Thinknum tracks companies using the information they post online - jobs, social and web traffic, product sales and app ratings - and creates data sets that measure factors like hiring, revenue and foot traffic. Data sets may not be fully comprehensive (they only account for what is available on the web), but they can be used to gauge performance factors like staffing and sales. 

Further Reading: 

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