Department of Labor Delivers Some Good News on Securities Industry Jobs

When Goldman Sachs says we are headed for a recession, most people on the Street believe it. When the Financial Times reports that big banking players like Citigroup, Morgan Stanley and Lehman Brothers eliminate 34,000 jobs with another 20,000 on the chopping block, people who work in finance get worried. But then the U.S. Labor Department comes along and releases their monthly numbers and you realize that…not all is lost. From this week’s report, it seems that the securities industry is not shedding jobs as quickly as some of the more dismal reports from investment banks may indicate.

Even though the U.S. non-farm payrolls across all industries have declined in the past 3 months, the nationwide securities sector has seen a 1 percent increase in jobs since the last quarter. There has been a steady increase in the securities industry employment rate. In first quarter of 2008, numbers were up by 8300 jobs. The March rate, which was seasonally adjusted at 865,000 jobs, is up by 2400 jobs since February. That number is also 3 percent higher than its peak in March 2001.

While most of the financial industry continues to worry about the impact of a recession on financial services jobs, employment in the securities sector climbed every month to set a record high.

Most of the capital markets have seen a decrease in budgets, employees and 401K accounts however; the numbers above prove there are still financial opportunities to take advantage of. Additionally, big investment banks and other companies that have shed jobs or eliminated departments that dealt with mortgage-backed securities have shifted talent overseas to expand opportunities in sovereign funds and foreign private wealth management. Since these numbers are not factored into US Department of Labor statistics, its hard to get a complete picture of the financial job market.