Credit Suisse will reduce work force

ZURICH - Credit Suisse Group AG, the second-biggest Swiss bank, plans to cut about 2,000 jobs after second-quarter profit fell 52 percent on lower earnings from trading.

Net income dropped to 768 million Swiss francs ($959 million) from 1.59 billion francs in the year-earlier period, the Zurich-based bank said on Thursday. That missed the 1.06 billion-franc average estimate of 16 analysts surveyed by Bloomberg.

Chief Executive Officer Brady Dougan is reducing the work force by about 4 percent to help the bank save about 1 billion francs in annual costs from next year, after increasing staff numbers in 2010 to win market share. Earnings at the investment bank tumbled as Europe's sovereign debt crisis and concerns over the global economic outlook increased risk aversion among clients.