Wall Street’s Hiring Boom

A new report from international central banks may warn that banks are still prone to crisis, but Wall Street is on a hiring kick, adding jobs for the first time in two years and guaranteeing payouts to recruits from rival firms. From late February through May, 6,800 jobs have been added to the financial industry in New York, the biggest three-month bump in hiring since 2008. Morgan Stanley and Citigroup are filling out their ranks, and smaller banks are poaching from bigger firms to boost their prestige. Offers are 30 to 40 percent larger than employees’ expected take-home pay in their current jobs. Still, there are about 40,000 fewer financial jobs than there were in August 2007. In the first quarter, five top banks reported a combined net income of $16.2 billion, the highest combined profit since the second quarter of 2007. Fastest-growing fields include equity derivatives and commodities trading.