For those on the job hunt in the financial services industry, the competition got stiffer. Russell Investments Canada Ltd. has let go as many as 30 of its 100 staff in Toronto.

The Toronto firm was hit harder than most companies under the Russell umbrella. On Wednesday, Tacoma, Washington-based Russell Investments announced it was handing out layoff notices to about 400 workers of its 2,000 workers worldwide.

Russell telegraphed the cuts back in January, citing the need to scale the size of the company with the size of its business, which has been shrinking along with the rest of the investment business. There has been turnover among executives, and in April 2008 Russell shuttered three of its hedge funds.

There is no word yet on which areas of the business will be affect by the cuts in Canada. In 2008, Russell Investments Canada took home IFIC’s Investor Education Award at the Canadian Investment Awards for its campaign that dealt with the fear many senior investors have of outliving their financial resources.

Worldwide, Russell has US$136 billion in assets under administration.

IE