Putnam to shed 260 people as industry slides

Putnam's action is one of the largest job cuts, by percentage, among financial firms with a large presence in Massachusetts. Fidelity Investments, MFS Investment Management, Bank of America, Citizens Bank, and Sovereign Bancorp have also eliminated personnel.

The deepening recession has prompted Moody's economy.com to estimate that Massachusetts will suffer even deeper losses in the financial industry than it previously predicted. The forecasting firm now says the state will lose 11,500 jobs from the financial and insurance sectors, compared with its previous prediction of 7,200 job losses, with the local economy bottoming in early 2010, as opposed to late 2009, as it previously thought.