JPMorgan’s commodities business hasn’t been having a good year. Chan Bhima lost $130m on a disastrous coal trade. And up to 50 commodities salepeople and traders, most of them in London, have been made redundant following the purchase of RBS Sempra.

Credit Suisse, on the other hand, is supposed to be growing its commodities operations. Its recent graphic on where growth will come from, depicted commodities as having, ‘upside potential,’ and in the second quarter conference call, Brady Dougan confirmed that the bank’s commodities business has, “significant growth potential.”

It’s slightly strange, therefore, that Credit Suisse is also rumoured to have been making commodities redundancies.

“Credit Suisse have let around 15 people go across commodities sales and trading,” claims one headhunter in the area. “It seems to have been a question of trimming to gain efficiencies.”

The bank hasn’t confirmed the veracity of this claim, but if true it doesn’t bode particularly well for other commodities positions over the coming quarter.

Most disturbingly, JPMorgan’s commodities woes may not be unique. When BarCap released a business by business breakdown of its revenues in the first half, it revealed that the 65% y-o-y reduction in its commodities top line was second only to the 67% reduction in rates revenues over the same period.

And now the good news

However, Morgan Stanley recently highlighted the strong performance of its commodities business. And headhunters insist that the commodities hiring scene is really not that bad.

“JPMorgan is an exception,” says one London commodities headhunter. “Everyone knew they were way, way overstaffed. They’ve been on a massive hiring drive over the past few years, and then bought Bear and Sempra – it’s been a question of when, not if, they made cuts.”

“There’s definitely hiring taking place in commodities, but it’s very targeted at filling specific needs rather than an opportunistic free-for-all,” says Paul Chrispin, partner of Principal Search.

Anyone ousted from JPMorgan or Credit Suisse would be advised to look at the likes of BNP Paribas, SocGen, Nomura, and possibly BofA Merrill Lynch and Goldman Sachs, all of which are rumoured to be (opportunistically) hiring in commodities at present.