Bank of America is hiring thousands of employees this quarter and investing heavily in talent and technology headed into the new year, according to Chief Executive Brian Moynihan.
“We’ve got thousands of job openings, we’ll hire 4,000 or 5,000 people this quarter,” Moynihan said Thursday in an interview with David Westin on Bloomberg Television. But headcount at the bank will remain flat or even decline given the rate of turnover, Moynihan said.
“Intense competition” for talent is fueling some of that turnover, partly because the U.S. economy has returned to full employment, the CEO said.
One area of focus will be increasing the number of bankers at the commercial lending business, according to the CEO. But hiring isn’t the only area the bank plans to invest in. The company will also spend $3.5 billion on technology and build or remodel more than 350 branches.
Moynihan identified the pandemic as the greatest macroeconomic risk headed into 2022. He said supply-chain snarls sparked by the spread of COVID-19 are beginning to normalize, and he emphasized that the Federal Reserve will take a cautious approach in raising rates to contain inflation.
