Fidelity Investments To Trim Work Force

Fidelity Investments said Wednesday it plans to eliminate between 200 to 300 jobs this year, a rare move by the world’s biggest mutual fund company as its business sags despite a booming stock market.

Most of the cuts will come through layoffs and are among the first significant public efforts by the company to cut costs and boost efficiency since James C. Curvey was appointed chief operating officer last month.

The planned cut, about 1 percent of the company’s 24,000 work force, is among the biggest in terms of numbers for the 51-year-old Fidelity since 1990.

“It’s fairly unusual but as a growing company we need to take a look at how we are operating,” said spokesman Andy Trincia. “At this point it makes good sense to evaluate our growth and evaluate whether we are operating efficiently.”

Positions will be trimmed in many areas, Trincia said, including administrative and systems operations. The company already eliminated 47 systems positions this year as it scaled back investments in technology.

The efforts come after four years of rapid growth in which assets have jumped from $190 billion to nearly $500 billion and the payroll - its most sizable expense - has increased from 9,000 to 24,000 people.