The credit crunch, a financial crisis that began in Wall Street just two years ago, has spread throughout the corporate world, bankrupting companies and terminating countless jobs as it goes. The rate of job losses has been monumental and at times unprecedented: on a single day in January of this year, 70,000 people (45,000 of them American and 4,000 of them British) lost their jobs!

Of course, it’s not just the corporate world that has been infected by this recession: it has permeated much of our daily lives. However, it is the closure of multinational financial companies that has had the greatest impact on the global economy and provided the media with the most iconic images of the credit crunch so far.

Here, we investigate (and rank) 10 credit crunched companies that have been forced to lay off thousands of their employees.

10. Goldman Sachs

Goldman Sachs has weathered the recent economic climate far better than most. However, it announced in October 2008 that it would axe 3,200 staff. The investment bank believes that it is necessary to streamline operations in order to cope with any future downturns, a decision that clearly shows no company can afford to rest on its laurels in the face of current global economic conditions.

Job losses: 330

Job losses: worldwide

Jobs cut in: 2008

Why: reducing overhead in preparation for future

9. Northern Rock

Northern Rock was one of the first banks to suffer from the credit crunch. A lack of consumer confidence caused a run on the bank, which ultimately led to its nationalisation in early 2008. The bank is in the process of paying back a £26.9 billion debt to the UK government, which it has financed in part by cutting 1,300 jobs. 500 of these job losses were voluntary redundancies; the rest were forced.

Job losses: 1,300

Job losses: United Kingdom

Jobs cut in: 2008

Why: cost cutting to speed up repayment of £26.9 billion loan to government

8. Lehman Brothers

Lehman Brothers became the biggest casualty of the credit crunch so far when it filed for bankruptcy at 1am on the 15th September 2008, citing bank debt of $613 billion, $155 billion in bond debt and assets worth a mere $639 billion. It was the largest bankruptcy filing in US history and the Dow Jones closed over 500 points down that day in response.

Major cracks in the company’s once-flawless veneer first appeared in August 2007, when it closed its subprime mortgage lender, BNC Mortgage, leaving 1,200 people jobless. Lehman’s stock plummeted 73% in early 2008 and by August of that year, the company had sacked 6% of its 24,000 employees.

Job losses: 2,640

Job losses: United Kingdom and United States

Jobs cut in: 2007 – 2008

Why: bankruptcy

7. Barclays Capital

In the wake of Lehman’s disintegration, scavengers around the world scrambled to pick up its pieces. Barclays soon announced that it would purchase Lehman’s North American investment banking and trading divisions as well as its New York headquarters for $1.75 billion.

Barclays absorbed 10,000 Lehman employees to add to its 4,000 American workers. Due to overlap in the two companies’ operations and partly to help finance the deal, Barclays soon announced that it would cut 3,000 jobs across both camps.

Job losses: up to 3,000

Jobs lost in: United Kingdom and United States

Jobs cut in: 2008

Why: merging with Lehman Brothers created overlap

6. Bear Stearns

Back in good old 2007, shares in Bear Stearns were worth $172 apiece. On 16 March 2008, Bear Stearns CEO, Alan Schwartz, was forced to sell to JP Morgan Chase for a measly $2 per share (a figure that ultimately rose to about $10 per share). 50% of the former 13,500 Bear Stearns employees could ultimately lose their jobs as a result, and many will lose much of the savings that they have tied up in Bear Stearns shares.

The investment bank’s spectacular fall from grace can be blamed on the subprime mortgage crisis and some extremely dodgy dealing. Former Bear Stearns hedge fund managers, Matthew Tannin and Ralph Cioffi, are both facing criminal charges for misleading investors about the subprime market.

Job losses: up to 6,750

Jobs lost in: mostly United States

Jobs cut in: to come

Why: merging with JP Morgan Chase

5. Royal Bank of Scotland Group

In 2008, the Royal Bank of Scotland was struggling to such an extent that the UK government, scared of another Northern Rock-type bank run, invested £20 billion of public funds in return for a 70% stake in the company.

The bank’s new chief executive, Stephen Hester, announced a recovery strategy to include cutting costs by 10% to 20%. This was widely interpreted to mean that 10% to 20% of RBS jobs would be lost, but Hester maintains that redundancies will be a last resort.

Nevertheless, 3,000 jobs were cut in late 2008, a further 2,300 job cuts were announced in February this year and an additional 9,000 jobs are expected to be lost in the not-to-distant future.

Job losses: up to 14,300

Jobs lost in: worldwide

Jobs cut in: 2008 – 2009

Why: massive cost cutting to reduce overheads and repay a £20 billion loan to the government

4. BT

BT, the only non-financial company in this list, saw its share price nose-dive from 235p to just 81p in April this year. Its poor performance is linked largely, if not entirely, to the credit crunch: its major losses have come from its Global Services division, which provides telecom and IT services to large multinationals.

BT cut 15,00o of its 160,000 employees in 2008 and plans to cut an additional 15,000 jobs in 2009.

Job losses: up to 30,000

Jobs lost in: mostly United Kingdom

Jobs cut in: 2008 – 2009

Why: as the crunch bites, companies are spending less on telecoms so BT’s losses continue to slide deeper into the red making job cuts a essential to improve profitability

3. Bank of America

Bank of America’s decision to acquire the floundering financial services firm, Merrill Lynch, in September 2008 could prove to be the worst it’s ever taken. The Bank, which was initially considered to be one of the few credit crunch winners, recorded an operating loss of $21.5 billion in the 1st quarter of 2009, largely as a result of Merrill Lynch’s trading losses.

The bank has since announced that it will shed 30,000 to 35,000 employees over 3 years, equivalent to 11% to 13% of its workforce.

Job losses: up to 35,000

Jobs lost in: mostly United States

Jobs cut in: 2009 – 2012

Why: duplication of positions in the combined workforce of BoA and Merrill Lynch

2. HBOS

In January 2009, Lloyds TSB took over HBOS, whose share price had been fluctuating wildly (from 88p to 220p) since rumours circulated that it had applied for emergency funding from the Bank of England. The UK government, fearful of the collapse of another major financial institution, allowed the takeover to bypass competition law.

There is speculation that 40,000 jobs will be lost as a result of the takeover, due to the high degree of overlap in the banks’ operations. This figure has by no means been reached yet, but jobs are steadily being slashed. Last month alone, 305 sales and 985 motor finance jobs were cut at Lloyds.

Job losses: up to 40,000

Jobs lost in: United Kingdom

Jobs cut in: to come

Why: branch closures throughout the country (where there’s a Halifax and Lloyds branch in close proximity) to reduce operating costs

1. Citigroup

Citigroup is the world’s largest bank. Its operations span 107 of the world’s 195 countries and its 369,000 employees serve 200 million customers worldwide. In 2008, the bank’s share price fell by 70% as it recorded losses of $20 billion.

The bank was forced to cut 20% of its employees, including chief executive Chuck Prince, leading to the redundancy of 75,000 people. The struggling bank has since been saved by a $45 billion US Treasury Department bailout package.

Job losses: up to 75,000

Jobs lost in: worldwide

Jobs cut in: 2008

Why: cost cutting in face of worldwide exposure to tough economic conditions