Dec. 3 (Bloomberg) -- Carlyle Group, the world’s second- biggest private-equity firm, is cutting 100 jobs, or 10 percent of its workforce, as the leveraged-buyout business remains stalled.

Some of the dismissals come at the Washington-based firm’s group dedicated to taking U.S. companies private, spokesman Chris Ullman said today in an interview. He declined to be more specific. The layoffs are separate from Carlyle’s decision last month to shutter its Central European and Asian leveraged-finance units, which eliminated fewer than 20 jobs.

Private-equity firms have announced $204 billion of deals in 2008, a 70 percent decline from the same period a year earlier, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Banks and investors all but stopped financing new transactions in mid-2007, and a global recession is hurting profits and making it harder for companies laden with debt to repay LBO lenders. Hawaiian Telcom Communications Inc., which Carlyle bought in 2005, filed for bankruptcy protection earlier this week.

“In response to extraordinary market conditions, Carlyle has taken measured steps to balance its cost structure with the current investment climate,” Ullman said. “The firm is well positioned to take good care of our investment portfolio and has the resources to create and respond to compelling investment opportunities.”

The layoffs were reported earlier today by the Wall Street Journal on its Web site.

Industry Contraction

Carlyle’s move comes amid broader job losses at banks, brokerages and money managers. Almost 195,000 global financial- services jobs have been eliminated since the third quarter of last year, Bloomberg data show.

Founded in 1987 by William Conway, Daniel D’Aniello and David Rubenstein, Carlyle has about $91.5 billion in assets under management. The firm has about $40 billion in uninvested capital among about 65 funds around the world.

Opportunities to put that money to work remain elusive, especially in large leveraged transactions. During the two-year buyout boom that collapsed last year, Carlyle and its rivals relied on cheap financing from Wall Street firms that have disappeared or retrenched amid the global credit crunch.

Carlyle earlier this year agreed to buy the U.S. government consulting business of Booz Allen Hamilton Inc. for $2.54 billion, among the biggest LBOs announced since the credit crunch took hold last August.

To contact the reporter on this story: Jason Kelly in New York at jkelly14@bloomberg.net

Last Updated: December 3, 2008 15:41 EST