LOS ANGELES — Mortgage lender IndyMac Bancorp Inc. said yesterday it will slash its workforce by 24 percent, laying off 2,403 employees in a bid to cut costs as it tries to weather the worsening housing slump and sagging demand for home loans.

The job cuts include a significant reduction in temporary vendor staffs, mainly in India, the Pasadena-based company said.

"This action is clearly painful, but it is necessary in our drive to return IndyMac to profitability soon," Mike Perry, IndyMac's chief executive, said in a memo to employees.

The layoffs follow a reduction of about 1,600 workers last year through voluntary resignation. The company ended 2007 with a workforce of 9,938.

The lender said the job cuts were necessary because the firm still faces a lack of demand for home loans on the secondary market and tighter access to capital due to the credit crunch that followed the collapse of the subprime mortgage market.

Perry noted the company has "a significant capital cushion and strong liquidity" but needs to keep costs down because it has been unable to sell its prime jumbo home loans on the secondary market and must keep them on its balance sheet.

IndyMac said it would take a pretax charge to earnings for severance and other expenses related to the workforce cuts of about $25 million in the first quarter, among other charges still to be determined.

The company expects to save $136 million annually in labor costs, in addition to other savings from vacated office space.

"The bottom line is that these savings are essential in our drive to return IndyMac to profitability soon," Perry said.

The lender posted a loss of $202.7 million during the third quarter ended Sept. 30.