Britain, although not part of the Eurozone, has still been affected by the continent’s sovereign debt crisis, which is apparent in the recent bank cuts - with more to follow. Britain’s four biggest banks will have eliminated about 189,000 jobs by the end of this year from their peak staffing levels, bringing employment to a nine-year low. The Royal Bank of Scotland, HSBC, Lloyds and Barclays, under pressure from investors to reduce fixed costs, will employ only about 606,000 people worldwide by the end of 2013, which is 24 percent below the peak of 795,000 in 2008 and the least since 2004, when they employed 594,000 globally. The reduction in workforce is driven by three things: economic decline, investment banking not producing as much income as it did and banks reducing the wage bill to hit profit targets promised to shareholders.