BlackRock will not lay off employees this year in response to coronavirus

The world's largest money manager promised its 16,200 employees that there will be no layoffs this year in response to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.

BlackRock Chairman and CEO Laurence D. Fink announced the news to the firm's employees during an internal town hall meeting Wednesday, said Melissa Garville, a company spokeswoman.

In a LinkedIn post Wednesday, Mr. Fink said "we are committed to making sure our people have the support they need during this time. All of our employees have the flexibility to take off as much time as they need to care for themselves, their family or a loved one."

He said BlackRock will continue to "manage our business and shift resources around to best serve our clients as we always do, but no one at BlackRock should be worrying right now about losing their job as a result of COVID-19," Mr. Fink said.

Mr. Fink said in the post that BlackRock also will pay the full-time wages of members of the "BlackRock community" who are not employees, but who "play essential roles supporting our facilities, like cafeteria workers and maintenance staff … even if they can't come to work."

BlackRock intends to continue its annual summer internship program and will bring on the 2020 class of college-graduate analysts to whom job offers have been made, according to Mr. Fink's post

However, BlackRock will not be adding new employees who don't already have job offers as part of a companywide hiring freeze in implemented in March in reaction to the coronavirus.

More than 90% of BlackRock's employees around the world are working remotely and "are staying as connected to one another and to our clients as they ever have," Mr. Fink said. He also is working from home.

BlackRock managed a total of $7.43 trillion as of Dec. 31.

Danielle Walker contributed to this story.