With the effects of the market meltdown, World’s largest Mutual fund manager Fidelity Investments has decided to cut 1,700 more jobs in the first three months of 2009 in the latest round of cost cutting,

The job cuts are part of a number of measures taken by the company to cut costs, according to Fidelity.

According to the sources, the company may undertake two rounds of job cuts. All together, the cuts will result in the dismissal of roughly 7% of Fidelity's total workforce of 44,000, by the end of March 2009.

The latest cuts are in addition to reductions totaling about 800 jobs in two rounds earlier this year after Fidelity reorganized some business units.

As the U. S. economy has slowed, more companies are looking for ways to streamline their operations and keep costs low.

Earlier this week, Morgan Stanley said it would cut nearly 10% of its institutional securities professionals, which comes on top of a 10% cut in its workforce overall this year.

Yesterday, Software giant Sun Microsystems said that it would cut 6000 jobs, or about 18% of its workforce.

The global market sell-off has reduced Fidelity’s assets under management this year by about 13 percent, to $1.4 trillion from $1.6 trillion through Sept. 30.