Washington Mutual to cut 900 jobs

SEATTLE — Washington Mutual Inc. said Thursday it is cutting another 900 jobs to save money, and outsourcing some of that work.

The cuts are the latest in a series of major layoffs at Washington Mutual, which has struggled with slowdowns in the mortgage industry and is trying to slash costs. The layoffs were announced internally Wednesday.

In May, the Seattle savings and loan cut 1,400 jobs, and in February it cut 2,500 jobs. In 2004, the company also cut 2,500 jobs.

The latest cuts are in the company’s retail banking and home loans group. Spokeswoman Olivia Riley the majority of the cuts in the company’s home loans division are because Washington Mutual decided to outsource residential appraisals to two other domestic companies.

About 40 of the retail banking jobs will be outsourced to overseas companies, she said.

Riley said she couldn’t comment on whether there might be future layoffs. She said there may have been some other job cuts aside from these large batches.

“As an ongoing part of business there are, at any given time, job eliminations,” she said.

Washington Mutual employed 60,381 workers as of March 31.