Jan 9 (Reuters) – Goldman Sachs Group (GS.N) will start cutting thousands of jobs across the firm from Wednesday, two sources familiar with the move said, as it prepares for a tough economic environment. Just over 3,000 employees will be let go, one of the sources said, but the final number is yet to be determined. That scale of layoffs would be the largest since the 2008 financial crisis, one of the sources said. The sources could not be named as the information was not yet disclosed publicly. Goldman Sachs declined to comment. Bloomberg News reported on Sunday that Goldman would eliminate about 3,200 positions. Goldman had 49,100 employees at the end of the third quarter, after adding significant numbers of staff during the coronavirus pandemic. The layoffs are likely to affect most of the bank’s major divisions, but should centre on Goldman Sachs’ investment banking arm, one of the sources said. Wall Street banks have suffered a major slowdown in corporate dealmaking activity as a result of volatile global financial markets. NN: Sources tell me the layoff could be as many as 16,000 the most in the firms history. Take their numbers and its still a warning that something is very very wrong. All the Wall Street firms are announcing the most cuts at least since the2009 wipeout. They are preparing for something BIG an Bad and Ugly.