Morgan Stanley cut 1,500 jobs this week: source

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Morgan Stanley (MS.N: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) cut 1,500 jobs this week across its investment banking, trading and asset management businesses, a person familiar with the situation said Friday, a 5 percent reduction of non-broker employees.

Most of the cuts hit employees in the United States and Europe, the source said. A few of the affected employees have not been notified yet.

As reported earlier this month, the second-largest investment bank is taking steps to cut 5 percent of employees across almost every business, excluding the retail brokerage division.

Including this latest round, Morgan Stanley has slashed more than 4,400 mortgage, banking and trading jobs to reduce expenses and weather a period of slowing revenue.

Morgan Stanley had 47,050 employees at the end of February.

(Reporting by Joseph A. Giannone Editing by Andre Grenon)