Citi Hiring 500 Bankers, Traders and Salespeople

"Slick" Vikram Pandit and gang are going on a spring hiring spree, looking to beef up their securities business by hiring 500 investment bankers, traders and salespeople.

Perhaps the spree, which is slated to occur over the next two years, is in response to Citi's poor investment banking results. In the first quarter 2011, the bank's investment banking profit fell by 46 percent versus the 2010 first quarter (largely a result of lackluster trading results).

Overall, Citi's profit of $3 billion for the quarter represented a 32 percent slide versus the same period in 2010.

While the hiring of hundreds of new employees is certainly a good sign, don't forget that Citi slashed and burned during the financial crisis, cutting tens of thousands of employees. That is, the firm still has a ways to go before it returns to its pre-crisis staffing levels.

Citi currently employs about 260,000 people; back in 2008, the firm employed more than 310,000.

(The Street: Citigroup Hiring 500)