Charles Schwab, the world's biggest online share broker, is cutting more jobs as falling stock markets continue to depress trading.

The company said it will cut up to 2,400 jobs or 11% of its workforce.

It is the second round of job losses the firm has announced this year. In March, Schwab cut 3,400 jobs.

The firm says trading activity has slumped by 50% from the beginning of the year.

'Toughest market environment'

Brokerages such as Schwab enjoyed booming business during the height of the bull market, as many ordinary people who had never traded in shares before began to dabble in the market.

But the crash in tech shares and the depressed state of markets in the United States and elsewhere means many of these new investors are now shunning equities.

"As our clients grapple with the toughest market environment that many of them have ever faced, they have scaled back their investing activity significantly - they are currently trading about 50% less than they were at the beginning of the year," chairman and co-chief executive Charles R Schwab said in a statement.

At the start of 2001, Schwab employed 26,700 workers, but by the end of this year its workforce will be back to about 20,000 - the same number of people it employed in 1999.

The company said it will take a pre-tax charge of $225m to pay for the severance packages.

Weak stock market

Thursday proved another savage day for investors, who endured a tumble in Blue Chip stocks that sent the Dow Jones Industrial Average below 10,000 for much of the session, losing over 150 points.

Terrifying drops in stock prices such as those seen on Thursday that have kept investors at bay - or on the sidelines, in Wall Street parlance.

It is that sort of uncertainty that has caused brokerage after brokerage to announce layoffs.

So far this year, Goldman Sachs, Merrill Lynch, Morgan Stanley and Ameritrade have announced job cuts or have pared staff.

Among the latest, Thomas Weisel Partners said earlier this week that it was laying off 80 people, or about 10% of its staff.

Analysts do not expect the bloodletting to stop anytime soon, bracing for more job cuts in the coming months.