Exclusive: Goldman to begin fresh round of job cuts - sources

Goldman Sachs Group Inc plans to begin a fresh round of job cuts as early as this week, sources familiar with the matter said on Monday, with its equities business bracing for bigger cuts than fixed-income trading.

The cuts come at the time of year in which the Wall Street bank typically gets rid of its weakest 5 percent of employees across the entire firm. But as the trading business continues to suffer from weak volumes and earnings, the losses are expected to be deeper in some businesses.

Equities trading will likely see cuts bigger than 5 percent, while fixed-income trading, which took big hits last year and has had better volumes, will likely see cuts of less than 5 percent the sources said.

Goldman's latest round of dismissals follows the bank's layoffs of 3,300 employees, or 9 percent of its workforce, over the past two years.

(Reporting By Lauren Tara LaCapra and Katya Wachtel; Editing by Maureen Bavdek)