The year 2013 is on target to see more job cuts with the first three months already producing thousands of staff reductions and nearly equaling fiscal 2012 staff reduction levels already.

Job cuts in financial services picked up in the first three months of the year, reaching 30,302 confirmed cuts altogether, according to outplacement firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas.

This figure is already equal to 75% of the 41,008 job cuts recorded in financial services in fiscal 2012.

So far, the financial sector has cut 30,302 jobs in 2013, compared to 7,864 positions for the same period last year.

The financial sector saw the most cuts last month, reporting 21,724 planned layoffs, the highest amount recorded since September 2011 when 31,167 positions were slashed.

Job cuts soared in February 2013, growing by nearly three times the amount of staff reductions recorded in January.