Barclays to Cut 5,000 Jobs by Year-End as Third-Quarter Profit Rises 12% to £2.3 Billion

Barclays is cutting around 5,000 jobs, about 5% of its workforce, before the end of 2026. The bank announced the move Thursday, Oct. 22, alongside its third-quarter results.

Chief financial officer Anna Cross told journalists that 1,000 of the cuts have already been carried out. The other 4,000 are due by the end of the fourth quarter.

The bank says the aim is to use technology, including artificial intelligence, to reduce fixed costs and improve returns.

Profits up, headcount down

The job cuts arrive with a profit increase, not a loss. Barclays reported pre-tax profit of £2.3 billion for July through September, up 12% from a year earlier. It is also returning a further £500 million to shareholders.

The investment bank was the biggest earner, with £3.1 billion in income. Equities income jumped 47% on the year. Fixed income trading fell 19%.

Income rose at the UK retail and corporate banks and in wealth management too.

Bloomberg reported that the quarter missed several key analyst estimates. It also reported that Barclays' bond traders posted the biggest slump on Wall Street during the quarter.

The cost-cutting math

Barclays booked about £200 million in cost efficiency savings in the third quarter. It plans roughly £300 million more in the final three months of the year.

Chief executive C.S. Venkatakrishnan said the cost-to-income ratio improved from 63% to 62% over the last three months. A lower ratio means the bank spends less to earn each pound of income.

The cuts come near the end of the bank's three-year strategy, which has centered on cost reduction and heavier technology spending. Venkatakrishnan said: "With one quarter to go before the end of our original three-year plan, we have either achieved or are on track to achieve all of our 2026 group targets." He added: "We are confident in and committed to the 2028 targets that we laid out earlier in the year."

The Guardian reported that the job-cut news was tucked into the results presentation and that the share price, though slightly higher Thursday morning in London, has lost about a quarter of its value over the past three months.

What the AI argument looks like

Barclays frames the cuts as efficiency. The Evening Standard called them "a blow to the City." Both descriptions fit the same numbers: a profitable bank is shrinking its payroll to protect its margins.

The broader worry is how AI-driven job losses interact with the economy. Greg Rosalsky of NPR's Planet Money wrote this month that he has "long been skeptical of sweeping claims about how AI will transform the world," but sees a risk of an "AI double whammy." In that scenario, an AI-fueled market bubble bursts, a recession follows, and the downturn pushes companies to replace workers with machines faster.

Rosalsky cited a J.P. Morgan analysis finding that just 42 AI-related companies accounted for about two-thirds of the S&P 500's price gains since early 2024. He also noted that AI firms are borrowing hundreds of billions of dollars for data centers and power. He was explicit that none of that proves a bubble exists.

Barclays is not describing its own cuts that way. Its stated case is plain: use technology to lower costs and lift returns.

What comes next

The 4,000 remaining cuts are due by the end of the fourth quarter, along with the roughly £300 million in additional savings Barclays has planned. Full-year results will show whether the bank hit those targets and what the cuts did to its cost-to-income ratio.