Wall Street Job Cuts Expected

 

The US securities industry employed a record 848,600 people as of September 2007, according to the “Back of the Envelope” graph in the January 4, 2008, New York Times Business Section. This eclipsed the previous peak set in March 2001. But as the Times noted, Wall Street firms are expected to make deep job cuts in 2008.

Such job cuts are not unexpected ? given the present state of the financial industry?especially since 2007 saw the heads of Citigroup and Merrill Lynch lose their jobs and the heads of Bear Stearns and Morgan Stanley forego their bonuses because of the subprime crisis.

When people in the executive suite lose their jobs or their bonuses, everyone further down the line ? such as brokers, operations people and even compliance types ? have to be getting nervous. We will be keeping our eye on employment developments on Wall Street as the year progresses.