MONEY

JPMorgan Chase adding 1,800 jobs

Scott Goss
The News Journal

JPMorgan Chase announced plans Monday to add 1,800 Delaware jobs by 2019 – a move state officials hailed as the largest hiring promise by a single company in the First State in nearly 20 years.

"Delaware is a great place to do business and a great place to invest in a workforce with the technology and financial skills that our company needs today and in the future," said Bill Wallace, JPMorgan Chase's chief administrative officer for Delaware.

The New York-based bank also promised Monday to undertake more than $200 million in capital investments – construction projects that will outfit JPMorgan's multiple corporate sites in Delaware for the influx new workers.

JPMorgan's planned new hires will work primarily in technology, finance, asset management and global data operations. The positions will offer an average annual salary of about $65,000, bank officials said.

Wallace said the bank will gradually fill the 1,800 positions based on need, rather than hire in waves, starting Jan. 1.

"Ultimately, it's a projection of our hiring needs two to three years out," said bank spokesman Paul Hartwick. "There is some science behind it based on capacity and other factors."

Gov. Jack Markell noted the 1,800 new jobs to be created by JPMorgan would raise the number of people employed in Delaware's financial sector to the highest level in history.

JPMorgan Chase & Co. leaders and Gov. Jack Markell announce that the firm will add 1,800 Delaware jobs by 2019.

"[But] the expansion means more than just setting historical records for employment," he said, "because one of the most successful and one of the most important companies in the world, JPMorgan, is affirming that Delaware has embraced the new economy and is meeting the evolving needs of our employers in high-demand fields."

Monday's announcement came during a press conference at the company's new Delaware Technology Center, a 357,000-square-foot office complex off Concord Pike in Fairfax. The bank acquired two connected buildings known as the Chesapeake and Delaware from AstraZeneca last year for $44 million.

Monday's briefing by JP Morgan reportedly was the largest hiring announcement by a single company since AstraZeneca moved its U.S. headquarters to Delaware in 1999. The pharmaceutical giant's workforce swelled to about 5,000 in 2005. But by 2013, AstraZeneca announced it would lay off 2,300 workers worldwide by 2016, including some in Delaware.

Roughly 2,400 AstraZeneca employees currently work in Delaware, with most located across the street from JPMorgan's new Delaware Technology Center, which the bank renovated and re-opened with about 1,900 workers this summer.

About 400 of the new Delaware jobs  JPMorgan plans to add also will be housed at the Delaware Technology Center, with the remaining 1,400 to be spread out over the company's other Delaware properties, Hartwick said.

Employees at the new JPMorgan Chase & Co. Delaware Technology Center. The firm announced it will add 1,800 Delaware jobs by 2019.

The Fairfax center is now the newest of seven technology hubs that JPMorgan operates in the U.S. and Delaware was chosen for the bank's latest expansion because of the number of high tech jobs already located here.

The bank invests close to $9 billion each year on technology and employs more than 44,000 "technologists" internationally – including 2,600 in Delaware. Those employees work on everything from building customer service software, websites and apps, to sophisticated financial data analysis, to securing the company against cyber attacks.

Wallace said the bank is counting on a steady pipeline of well-trained workers from a variety of education initiatives in Delaware.

He specifically mentioned Delaware TechHire, a program aimed at providing training to entry-level computer programmers through accelerated community college programs and ZipCode, a new coding school that opened in Wilmington this year.

The bank also recently expanded the JPMorgan Chase Innovation Center at University of Delaware's Purnell Hall where about 60 students work as interns between classes and after school.

"We think it's absolutely critical to strengthen the technology ecosystem and the community around it here in Delaware," Wallace said.

JPMorgan's promise to hire 1,800 workers in Delaware comes less than six months after the company announced plans to lay off 5,000 employees nationwide by 2016 as the nation's largest bank overhauls 5,570 branches to eliminate tellers in favor of a greater focus on technology.

Richard Goeke, an assistant professor of Information Systems at Widener University, said the banking technology industry is poised for explosive growth over the next few years as consumers increasingly switch over to online banking.

To meet that demand, he said, banks are moving away from outsourcing information technology in favor of hiring in-house workers to build mobile applications and security systems.

“The information systems is what gives you a competitive advantage these days,” he said. “You need people in-house who can develop those systems.”

Goeke said he was not surprised JPMorgan plans to add so many tech jobs in Delaware.

“Mobile banking applications are massive, very intricate and need to comply with government regulations,” he said. “This is very difficult and time consuming. You need a highly skilled staff to do for this.”

Goeke added that Delaware already has highly qualified people ready to take advantage of the banking technology expansion in a few years.

"This could be a huge growth industry for Delaware,” he said.

UD unveils JPMorgan Chase 'innovation' center

Markell said the state would support JPMorgan's expansion by providing up to $13.5 million over the next three years in direct and indirect assistance, including a commitment to increase train service between Wilmington and Philadelphia.

The Delaware Economic Development Office will directly support JPMorgan with up to $9 million in Strategic Fund grants over three years. The grants – contingent on the bank's ability to meet annual employment benchmarks – will be used fund the construction projects at the bank's Delaware locations, state officials said.

JPMorgan Chase & Co. leaders and Gov. Jack Markell announce that the firm will add 1,800 Delaware jobs by 2019.

Those sites include three buildings in downtown Wilmington, a multi-building campus near Christiana, a human resource and finance center in a former MBNA building in Ogletown, a data center in Bear and a 357,000-square-foot Delaware Technology Center office complex off Concord Pike in Fairfax.

Details about which locations are slated for expansion – and when – were not immediately available Monday afternoon.

Kenneth Woods, who represents Sheet Metal Workers Local Union No. 19, said JPMorgan's investment in its existing properties would have the ripple effect of creating construction jobs. He said union members would be doing work at both the bank’s Fairfax campus as well as its data center in Bear.

“I’ve got about 30 to 40 men who are unemployed right now,” he said. “JPMorgan cleared out my hiring hole and put all of my men to work.

Woods estimated those construction jobs would pay about $30 an hour and provide work to pipe fitters, carpenters, electricians, plumbers and pipe fitters.

The state also will use the Strategic Fund to provide JPMorgan with $500,000 each of the next three years to support training for JP Morgan's new hires.

Bernice Whaley, director of the Delaware Economic Development Office, said those funds require an even match from the bank.

"That can be an in-kind match ... including paying workers a salary during their training," she said. "Our records show it typically ends up being like a 2:1 match in terms of private sector investment in paying for training."

The Council on Development Finance, an advisory board that vets state economic development projects, will consider the JPMorgan grants next month, she said.

Meanwhile, the Delaware Transit Corporation has committed $1 million a year in indirect support through "enhanced regional transportation options" that will include more frequent Amtrak service to the Wilmington train station.

About 64 percent of JPMorgan's workers here are Delaware residents, while roughly 4 percent commute from the Philadelphia-area, company officials said.

John Sisson, the chief executive officer of DART, said the agency has been working with SEPTA and Amtrak to expand train service in Delaware for several months.

"We haven't specifically identified the exact number of trains," he said. "But we're also looking at bus service from the train station."

Once complete, JPMorgan's hiring drive would bring its total employment in Delaware to nearly 10,000 – making the nation's largest bank the second largest employer in the state, behind only Christiana Care at 11,100 workers.

Bernice Whaley is the director of the Delaware Economic Development Office.

JPMorgan Chase now has about 8,000 employees in Delaware and plans to reach 8,700 by Jan. 1. That's up from nearly 2,000 from 2012.

JPMorgan currently has about 400 job openings available, in addition to the 1,800 jobs the bank plans to add over the next three years, Hartwick said.

Jeff Mordock contributed to this story.

Contact business reporter Scott Goss at (302) 324-2281, sgoss@delawareonline.com or on Twitter @ScottGossDel.