Details Emerge on Bear Staffers' Fate

As many as 6,000 of Bear Stearns' 14,000 employees reportedly have been offered jobs by new owner JPMorgan Chase & Co. But for thousands of technology and operations staffers whose fate remains up in the air, the outlook is gloomy.

"The remaining roughly 3,500 employees will learn their fates in the next two weeks," Reuters reported late Monday. "These staffers, mostly in technology and operations, and will likely see a lower percentage of job offers," the story said, citing an unnamed source.

The newswire gave conflicting figures on the number of Bear workers invited to remain at JPMorgan. Its story led with the 6,000 number, attributed to the unnamed source said to be familiar with the situation. That's roughly in line with initial speculation in the wake of the March announcement of the hastily arranged deal, that JPMorgan would offer jobs to about half of Bear's work force.

However, the same story also reported that JPMorgan Chase Chief Executive James Dimon said Monday that "about three-fourths of people decisions have been completed so far, with 40 percent offered jobs." The latter number works out to 4,200 job offers.

JPMorgan's present work force apparently won't get a pass. Some of the bank's own staff are expected to be pushed out to make room for Bear Stearns employees deemed superior, according to Reuters.

Meanwhile, Dealbreaker reports that some Bear employees have turned down offers to work for JPMorgan. Many such offers were "at substantially lower levels - and lower pay - than they enjoyed at Bear," according to Dealbreaker.