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Are things looking up on Wall Street?
According to a report by New York State Comptroller Thomas P. DiNapoli, Wall Street bonuses and
profits were up in 2012.
My office's analysis shows that the twenty-twelve bonus pool grew by eight percent to twenty
billion dollars over last year, driven in part by bonuses deferred from prior years.
The estimate of the bonus pool that we're projecting is consistent with the estimates
that the city and state budget officials have been operating with.
Despite these findings, indications are that New York’s financial industry is still in
transition. While profits may be up, the industry is still restructuring.
Wall Street employment dropped during the second half of 2012. Overall the industry
has seen a net loss of almost twenty thousand jobs since the start of the financial crisis
in 2008. The industry is expected to continue downsizing as firms adapt to change.
Profits of the broker/dealer operations of the New York Stock Exchange, a traditional
measure of industry performance, totaled twenty-three point nine billion dollars. This is an increase
over last year, but profitability varied among individual firms.
Before the financial crisis, Wall Street accounted for up to twenty percent of New York State
tax revenues; now it’s at about fourteen percent.
And since 2008, several major Wall Street firms either went bankrupt or were sold to
banks.
But even with sweeping changes in the financial industry, Wall Street remains a major part
of New York’s economy.
In 2011, the securities industry accounted for twenty-three percent of private sector
wages in New York City – though it represented only five percent of the jobs.
The average salary, including bonuses, in the securities industry in New York City edged
up to nearly three hundred, sixty-three thousand dollars in 2011.
Wall Street may be smaller, but its impact remains huge.
Comptroller Thomas P. DiNapoli: "The securities industry in New York City is a major driver
of the city and state economies - it's no secret that when Wall Street is strong, all
New Yorkers benefit."