Wall Street sees big bonuses as jobs in finance sector decline
While the Dow Jones is up to record highs, the financial sector is continuing to shrink
Wall Street may seem like its old self again. Financial giants including Goldman Sachs raked in mega profits in 2012; bonuses are expected to fatten more Wall Streeters' pockets than last year; and the Dow Jones Industrial Average has been flirting with an all-time high after topping 14,000 for the first time in half a decade.
But droves of recent lay-offs tell a different story. Indeed, analysts see a Wall Street that has shrunk in the four years since the financial crisis, in part because of new regulations aimed at making the financial sector safer.
Frederick Cannon, a director of research at investment bank Keefe, Bruyette & Woods in New York, said: "We're definitely seeing the shrinkage of the industry."
As Wall Street adjusts, thousands of highly paid employees are being laid off. As of Tuesday, financial firms globally had announced 114,708 lay-offs in the past year, or 1.6 per cent of their combined workforces, according to Bloomberg.
Dutch financial giant ING said on Wednesday that it would cut 2,400 positions in coming years, a day after British investment bank Barclays said it would slash 3,700 more jobs this year.
"There are basically no jobs," said one anonymous equity trader in his 40s at a major financial firm in New York. "If you're fired, it's almost impossible to get rehired on Wall Street."
