PNC cutting 96 Ohio jobs

PNC Bank is cutting 96 Franklin County jobs, the bank has notified the state of Ohio.

PNC is joining Fifth Third in a wave of recent job cuts in Ohio. Cincinnati-based Fifth Third late in June acknowledged that it will cut an undisclosed number of jobs in Southwest Ohio.

Pittsburgh-based PNC’s cuts will affect 96 employees, the company said in a required notice to the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services.

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Affected employees, however, were given a chance to work from home.

PNC has about 2,600 retail branches across 19 states and has more than 11,000 Ohio employees, the company said. Its Columbus “customer care” location has about 350 employees.

“Consistent with its ongoing growth and expansion plans, the management of the customer care center has made the decision to transition the Columbus location from a ‘brick and mortar’ site to a virtual work site by the end of 2018,” PNC said in its letter to the state, dated Tuesday. “That decision has been communicated to the employees in Columbus and every employee was offered the opportunity to work from their home location.”

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More than 70 percent of affected workers accepted that offer, but 96 employees did not, the bank said. Those employees are eligible for for PNC’s “displacement benefit plan.”

Retail banking jobs have been pressured for some time by automation, online banking and other trends. Last year, Vikram Pandit, a former Citigroup Inc. chief executive, said technology could displace about 30 percent of banking jobs in the next five years.

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