JPMorgan Chase & Company is cutting 10 percent of its Investment banking staff - about 3,000 jobs - as the economic slowdown starts biting into its earnings. JPMorgan shares slid as much as 18 percent as one analyst said the cuts could reflect greater-than-expected weakness at the bank, long seen as one of the industry's few stalwarts through the credit crisis.

Ben Wallace, securities analyst at Grimes & Co in Westborough, Massachusetts, which holds JPMorgan shares, said that since JPMorgan has held up relative to the group, they're more vulnerable to a fall. Cutting investment banking jobs raises questions about profitability at the firm, he added.

Although the bank declined comment on the issue, media reports suggest that on Thursday (November 20), JPMorgan let go at least six equity sales officials from its New York desk. Its shares were down 12 percent at $25.01 in afternoon trade on the New York Stock Exchange after falling as low as $23.21 earlier in the session.

The company's investment bank has just under 31,000 employees, up 20 percent from a year earlier, according to a third-quarter regulatory filing. JPMorgan took on about 6,000 staff from nearly insolvent Bear Stearns Cos in March and has also added about 40,000 staff through its acquisition of failed thrift Washington Mutual Inc, according to its third-quarter earnings statement. The bank's total head count was 228,452 at the end of September.