Eighty-six people at Wells Fargo’s Jordan Creek campus in West Des Moines will lose their jobs effective Dec. 26, the day after Christmas. The Wells Fargo layoffs are the biggest single layoff in the state’s public data, according to local reporting.
Workers were notified Tuesday, Oct. 27, according to the Iowa WARN filing as reported by WeAreIowa. That is a hard date to land on for anyone and their family.
Why Wells Fargo job cuts keep landing at Jordan Creek
Wells Fargo employs around 13,000 people in the Des Moines metro, according to Greater Des Moines Partnership data cited by WeAreIowa. That makes it one of the area’s biggest employers, which is why 86 jobs matter here.
The 86-person cut is the largest single filing since at least October 2021, per WeAreIowa. WHO13 frames it as the biggest since at least 2022, the earliest year of data on the state’s WARN site. So the “five years” line describes what’s in the public record, not a company-wide record.
The pattern is clear. WeAreIowa counts this as the 22nd round of Wells Fargo layoffs in Iowa this year, and WHO13 puts this year’s total at 460 workers. Earlier rounds this year were smaller, like 33 workers in March and 49 in April.
Zoom out and the number grows. WeAreIowa says Wells Fargo has laid off more than 1,500 Des Moines-area workers since October 2021. Every cut since the start of 2024 has landed at Jordan Creek.
Here’s the thing: when an employer that size trims, the effects reach beyond the people on the list. They reach households, neighbors and the local businesses those paychecks support. Repeated rounds, even small ones, can wear on a community.
The pattern fits a bank that has been shrinking its workforce for years. According to the Des Moines Register, Wells Fargo had 275,000 employees when CEO Charlie Scharf arrived in 2019. It had trimmed about 65,000 by the end of September 2025. Other banks are moving the opposite way in some places, as Morgan Stanley’s new Dallas hub and its 3,800 jobs show.
Two things are not confirmed here. We couldn’t get the company’s statement on this latest round. We also haven’t verified which jobs are affected or what severance looks like.
What this Wells Fargo layoff doesn’t mean for your account
Let’s be clear about what’s not in the reporting. Jordan Creek is a corporate and operations campus, not a retail branch. Nothing we found connects this Wells Fargo layoff to branch closures, checking-account fees or lost perks. If you saw a post claiming your local branch is next, there’s no source for that.
That said, the direction of travel is worth watching. A newsletter recap of a September investor conference has Wells Fargo’s CFO saying AI will bring headcount down more. We couldn’t confirm that quote against a transcript, so treat it as a signal, not a fact. For context on how the big banks are faring overall, see our look at how Q3 bank earnings kicked off on Wall Street.
What happens next after the West Des Moines cuts
The 86 layoffs take effect Dec. 26. Beyond that, expect more filings. Based on this year’s pace, more Wells Fargo job cuts on the Iowa WARN log look likely, though that’s an inference, not a promise from the bank.
For the rest of the Des Moines area, the next filing will be watched closely.
