JPMorgan Chase & Co. said on Thursday it will eliminate about 12,000 jobs as part of its takeover of the failed Washington Mutual.

Chief Executive Jamie Dimon said the cut was a precautionary move to ensure that the company has financial flexibility should economic conditions worsen. The move will save the company about US$5 billion per year.

JPMorgan acquired the assets of Seattle-based WaMu, the largest bank ever to fail in US history, at the end of September.

JPMorgan's decision came followed the release of the Labor Department's worse-than-expected job data.

The government said Thursday that first-time requests for unemployment benefits jumped to 667,000 from the previous week's figure of 631,000 and the number of Americans continuing to receive unemployment benefits has topped 5.1 million.

(Xinhua News Agency February 27, 2009)