Wall Street Shrinks As Financial Sector Layoffs Near 500,000 Since 2008: Report

Wall Street layoffs have totaled nearly 500,000 in the past four years, according to a new study.

It seems the world of finance is still in the throes of its own great recession.

One hundred of the largest cities in the U.S. have shed a total of 459,400 finance-sector jobs in the past four years, according to an analysis of Labor Department data by The Business Journals.

New York saw the biggest drop in terms of sheer numbers, according to the Journals, losing 48,600 finance-sector jobs since 2008, a 6.14 percent drop. Los Angeles has shed 40,300 finance sector jobs in that period, an 11.39 percent decline, and Chicago lost 35,800 finance positions, an 11.24 percent drop.

While New York had the worst four years in terms of total number of jobs shed, Las Vegas saw the biggest percentage drop -- the 10,000 jobs it has shed represent a 21 percent decline since February 2008.

The Labor Department lumps a wide array of workers into the financial-services category, among them bankers, insurance agents, stockbrokers, employee-benefit counselors and real-estate agents, the report notes.

The figures paint a vivid portrait of an industry that, in spite of massive government support, is undergoing a large-scale contraction. A combination of new regulations that restrict the type of trading certain firms can engage in, a debt crisis that continues to hammer financial institutions in Europe, and a lackluster market for deal-making has led many institutions -- particularly the big banks -- to scale back globally, including in the U.S.

Citigroup, Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan Chase and Morgan Stanley are all getting ready to shed dozens of deal-related jobs -- including from among the ranks of its senior staff -- starting as early as next month, according to The Wall Street Journal. Last September, Bank of America announced plans to cut as many as 30,000 jobs over the next few years, in an effort to save $5 billion per year.

At the same time, Swiss banking giant Credit Suisse, which on Wednesday reported a less-than-stellar first quarter, plans to cut as many as 3,500 jobs worldwide by 2013, according to The New York Times, including several in New York.

And across the banking industry, firms have been adapting to new regulations by closing once-profitable operations. In January, Citigroup said that it would be joining a long list of top U.S. banks in closing its proprietary trading desk, shedding its workers from that department entirely.

Comments

[infonomics]

11:19 AM on 05/22/2012

The new American experience: from sipping lattes to serving them.

[cn13]

09:36 AM on 04/26/2012

Good. Let them rot. Trading volume in the markets has literally fallen off a cliff as the public is finally waking up to the fact that the markets are rigged.

Rigged by the FED with their "quantitative easing" programs in conjunction with the bailed out "too stupid to succeed" banks.

Anyone who still has money in the stock market is a fool. It is no longer investing, it is sheer gambling and a rigged game at that.

Vegas offers better odds than Wall Street does today.

[drhirise]

03:06 AM on 04/26/2012

After all, what is good citizenship anyway? You've got to get what you can in this life, and the weak culls will fall by the wayside like nature intended. Today the pigs at the top are fatter than ever.

[knightoftheroundtable]

12:17 AM on 04/26/2012

Maybe panning for gold in Alaska is not such a bad idea after all.......

[dadw5boys]

01:45 AM on 04/26/2012

A father and son from Calif go up to Alaska every spring and pan gold by a lake in Nome all summer till the first snow.
Then they return to Calif and buy 1 or 2 rental houses paying cash. They have been doing that for almost 15 years now.

[nypapajoe]

06:18 PM on 04/25/2012

[robnelsong]

04:05 PM on 04/25/2012

I guess that the vampire squid has lost a few of its tentacles. Cry me a river.

[Konnie]

02:31 PM on 04/25/2012

let me get this straight. they cheat, lie, and steal, wipe out millions of small investors, pension and union, public worker investments, break the entire economy - get their sorry behinds bailed out of trouble, the stock market is shockingly high - bonuses were paid in spite of their skullduggery
and it's not enough. aint' nobody got anymore money to trust them with. and they have the audacity to whine. theB@$t@rd$!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[lofttypeofaview]

01:42 PM on 04/25/2012

Looks like the 99% has 459,400 more members!

[IWantTofu]

01:13 PM on 04/25/2012

At least the stock market is up 40% since President Obama took office.

[aforbes808]

04:59 PM on 04/25/2012

Virtual Reality.

[48thGuy]

09:39 PM on 04/25/2012

It's a fact, since he took office DJIA up 42%.

[KarmaPatrol]

01:11 PM on 04/25/2012

It's a field that lends itself to automation, though it's ironic the first group of workers to be automated out of a job are on Wall St. (Huff Po had an article last wk where 90% of trades are now computer driven). Of course that could be many of our fates, but then what? Maybe more people get into design and/or get truly good at the performing arts ... another renaissance, instead of multilevel marketing schemes or serving mall rats.