Washington, Sep 13 (IANS): Bank of America said Monday that it will cut about 30,000 jobs over the next few years to slash costs, Xinhua reported.

The job reduction is part of "Project New BAC", a broad restructuring plan that started in January 2010, the bank said in a statement, adding that the layoffs will help it reduce $5 billion in annual expenses by 2014.

During the first phase of reorganization, Bank of America sold non-core business units and assets that don't support its strategy, the statement said.

"As the company implements the thousands of decisions from Project New BAC over time, it intends to become a more focused, leaner, and more efficient company."

However, the bank's stock price has plunged by nearly 47 percent since the beginning of this year due to its involvement with subprime mortgages before the 2008 financial crisis. In addition, it suffered a loss of $9.1 billion in the second quarter.

The second phase of the project is scheduled to begin in October and continue through March 2012, and cover the company's corporate banking and global markets businesses.