Latest news with #staffcuts
Reuters
3 days ago
- Business
- Reuters
US SEC lays out plan to keep budget flat, lower staff levels
NEW YORK/WASHINGTON, May 30 (Reuters) - The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on Friday said it was asking Congress to keep its budget unchanged next year and its workforce significantly leaner following recent deep staff cuts. The agency asked for $2.15 billion in funding for the 2026 fiscal year, keeping levels flat from the current amount approved by lawmakers. The budget request, published on the agency's website on Friday, also said the SEC is seeking a total of 4,101 full-time positions versus the current year's congressionally approved level of 4,548, a drop of 9.8%. Paul Atkins, the agency's chairman, is due to deliver Senate testimony about the budget request on Tuesday. An agency spokesperson declined to comment beyond the contents of the budget request. The SEC's current fiscal year runs through the end of September. The annual request shows the agency expects to remain significantly leaner after hundreds of employees left the agency through early-resignation programs. Wall Street's top regulator saw key divisions lose 15% to 19% of their full-time headcount over the course of several weeks earlier this year. Some 600 staff have taken resignation offers amid President Donald Trump and Elon Musk's efforts to remake the federal workforce. Keeping its budget flat will give the agency an excess of $100 million in its coffers, the report said. The SEC said the excess funding may be needed because of a "number of uncertainties", including the potential for Congress to give the regulator responsibilities from a U.S. audit watchdog that may be effectively eliminated.
Washington Post
3 days ago
- Business
- Washington Post
UN seeks 20% cut in staff to help deal with a funding shortfall
UNITED NATIONS — More than 60 United Nations offices, agencies and operations have been ordered to submit proposals by mid-June to cut 20% of their staff, as part of a major reform effort to consolidate operations in the face of a critical funding crunch. The cuts affect about 14,000 posts covered by the regular budget, or about 2,800 posts, U.N. spokesman Stephane Dujarric told reporters Friday.
Associated Press
3 days ago
- Business
- Associated Press
UN seeks 20% cut in staff to help deal with a funding shortfall
UNITED NATIONS (AP) — More than 60 United Nations offices, agencies and operations have been ordered to submit proposals by mid-June to cut 20% of their staff, as part of a major reform effort to consolidate operations in the face of a critical funding crunch. The cuts affect about 14,000 posts covered by the regular budget, or about 2,800 posts, U.N. spokesman Stephane Dujarric told reporters Friday. These include staff in the U.N.'s political and humanitarian offices, and its agencies helping refugees, promoting gender equality and dealing with international trade, the environment and cities. The U.N. agency supporting Palestinian refugees, UNRWA, is also on the list. U.N. Controller Chandramouli Ramanathan said in a memo to the affected agencies that the staff cuts are part of Secretary-General Antonio Guterres' goal of achieving a reduction of between 15% and 20% in the U.N.'s current budget of $3.72 billion. The cuts are part of the UN80 reform initiative launched by Guterres in March as the world body approaches its 80th anniversary later this year. The U.N. chief has dismissed any relationship with the cuts to foreign aid and other programs by U.S. President Donald Trump. Instead, he has pointed to shrinking U.N. resources over at least the past seven years as not all member states pay their yearly dues and many don't pay on time. The U.S., with the world's biggest economy, is expected to pay 22% of the regular budget, while China, with the second-largest economy, recently had its share raised to 20%. Last year, 152 of the U.N.'s 193 member nations paid their dues in full, including China, but 41 countries did not, including the United States. The controller's memo, obtained Thursday night by The Associated Press, gives advice to the heads of agencies on which posts to cut: 'Assess functions based on efficiency; Prioritize based on impact; Target redundant, overlapping or non-critical functions or roles for consolidation or abolition.' Guterres and his predecessors in past decades have struggled to reform the United Nations, which was established following World War II, and bring it into a modern era with different powers, new technology and greater global divisions. One key problem is that while the secretary-general is the U.N.'s chief executive, power rests with the 193 member nations, which have very different ideas about the U.N. and the world. The proposed cuts must be submitted to the controller by June 13. Dujarric said they will be incorporated into Guterres' proposed 2026 budget, to be adopted by the General Assembly in December. The U.N.'s 11 peacekeeping missions are financed by a separate budget, and many of its far-flung agencies and operations are funded entirely by voluntary contributions, including the Rome-based World Food Program, known as WFP. Several U.N. agencies were already planning to slash jobs or cut costs in other ways, with officials pointing to funding reductions mainly from the United States and warning that vital relief programs will be severely affected as a result. WFP is expected to cut up to 30% of its staff, and the head of the U.N. refugee agency UNHCR said it would downsize its headquarters and regional offices to reduce costs by 30% and cut senior-level positions by 50%, according to internal memos obtained by the AP. Other agencies, including UNICEF, the U.N. children's agency, and OCHA, the U.N. humanitarian agency, have also announced or plan to make cuts.
The Independent
3 days ago
- Business
- The Independent
UN seeks 20% cut in staff to help deal with a funding shortfall
More than 60 United Nations offices, agencies and operations have been ordered to submit proposals by mid-June to cut 20% of their staff, as part of a major reform effort to consolidate operations in the face of a critical funding crunch. The cuts affect about 14,000 posts covered by the regular budget, or about 2,800 posts, U.N. spokesman Stephane Dujarric told reporters Friday. These include staff in the U.N.'s political and humanitarian offices, and its agencies helping refugees, promoting gender equality and dealing with international trade, the environment and cities. The U.N. agency supporting Palestinian refugees, UNRWA, is also on the list. U.N. Controller Chandramouli Ramanathan said in a memo to the affected agencies that the staff cuts are part of Secretary-General Antonio Guterres' goal of achieving a reduction of between 15% and 20% in the U.N.'s current budget of $3.72 billion. The cuts are part of the UN80 reform initiative launched by Guterres in March as the world body approaches its 80th anniversary later this year. The U.N. chief has dismissed any relationship with the cuts to foreign aid and other programs by U.S. President Donald Trump. Instead, he has pointed to shrinking U.N. resources over at least the past seven years as not all member states pay their yearly dues and many don't pay on time. The U.S., with the world's biggest economy, is expected to pay 22% of the regular budget, while China, with the second-largest economy, recently had its share raised to 20%. Last year, 152 of the U.N.'s 193 member nations paid their dues in full, including China, but 41 countries did not, including the United States. The controller's memo, obtained Thursday night by The Associated Press, gives advice to the heads of agencies on which posts to cut: 'Assess functions based on efficiency; Prioritize based on impact; Target redundant, overlapping or non-critical functions or roles for consolidation or abolition.' Guterres and his predecessors in past decades have struggled to reform the United Nations, which was established following World War II, and bring it into a modern era with different powers, new technology and greater global divisions. One key problem is that while the secretary-general is the U.N.'s chief executive, power rests with the 193 member nations, which have very different ideas about the U.N. and the world. The proposed cuts must be submitted to the controller by June 13. Dujarric said they will be incorporated into Guterres' proposed 2026 budget, to be adopted by the General Assembly in December. The U.N.'s 11 peacekeeping missions are financed by a separate budget, and many of its far-flung agencies and operations are funded entirely by voluntary contributions, including the Rome-based World Food Program, known as WFP. Several U.N. agencies were already planning to slash jobs or cut costs in other ways, with officials pointing to funding reductions mainly from the United States and warning that vital relief programs will be severely affected as a result. WFP is expected to cut up to 30% of its staff, and the head of the U.N. refugee agency UNHCR said it would downsize its headquarters and regional offices to reduce costs by 30% and cut senior-level positions by 50%, according to internal memos obtained by the AP. Other agencies, including UNICEF, the U.N. children's agency, and OCHA, the U.N. humanitarian agency, have also announced or plan to make cuts.
Al Arabiya
4 days ago
- Business
- Al Arabiya
UN could cut thousands of jobs under reform plans: Internal memo
The cash-strapped United Nations could slash 20 percent of jobs—or thousands of positions—in its executive arm under ongoing reform plans, according to an internal memo seen Thursday by AFP. 'The Secretary-General has set an ambitious target, to achieve a meaningful reduction (between 15 percent and 20 percent) of the regular budget for 2026, including a reduction of 20 percent of posts, for the UN Secretariat,' UN Controller Chandramouli Ramanathan wrote in a message this week to dozens of department heads. The UN's budget for 2025 totals $3.7 billion. The Secretariat, one of the main bodies tasked with carrying out the decisions of the Security Council and the General Assembly, employed about 35,000 people as of late 2023—most of them in New York, but also in Geneva, Vienna, and Nairobi. The UN 80 reform initiative launched by UN Secretary-General António Guterres in March aims to streamline operations at the world body amid budgetary constraints. Guterres recently warned of 'painful' changes ahead, including staff reductions, and did obliquely raise the specter of a 20 percent cut in staffing. The memo seen by AFP, dated May 27, asks all department heads to prepare lists of posts to eliminate by June 13, focusing on 'redundant, overlapping or non-critical functions.' 'I count on your cooperation for this collective effort whose aggressive timelines are recognized,' Ramanathan wrote. If approved by the General Assembly, which must adopt the 2026 budget, the staff cuts would go into effect on January 1, 2026 for those posts already vacant, and later for those occupied, in accordance with UN regulations. The memo says that agencies like the UN refugee agency (UNHCR), the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA), and UN Women—which are partially funded out of the UN's regular budget—would receive separate instructions. The UN has for years faced a chronic liquidity crisis because some member states do not pay their expected contributions in full, and others do not pay on time. The United States, the top contributor to the UN ordinary budget at 22 percent of the total, was $1.5 billion behind in its payments by the end of January, a UN spokesman said. And in 2024, China, the number two contributor at 20 percent, only paid its contribution in late December. Beyond the liquidity woes, some fear that funding will drop under US President Donald Trump. Several UN agencies have already been hit hard by deep cuts in US foreign aid.
