The wave of Wall Street layoffs grew yesterday as Bear Stearns said it would eliminate 310 more mortgage jobs and analysts warned that investment banks may wind up making much bigger cuts.

The news came as Bear reorganised its mortgage business and brought the bank’s total cuts to 540. It came a day after Morgan Stanley laid off 600 mortgage-related workers and Credit Suisse said it would shed 170 in its investment banking arm, bringing its total job losses to 320. Lehman Brothers has cut 2,500 mortgage-related jobs.