23-11-2011, 04:19 AM
Business Times - 23 Nov 2011
Wall Street is full of the young and the jobless
Headcount of financiers aged 20-34 falls 25% from 3Q08 to 3Q11
(NEW YORK) Steve Ferdman celebrated getting a recent job offer from Credit Suisse in the usual Wall Street fashion. Over expensive oysters and dark rum cocktails at a trendy Manhattan restaurant with his parents, he toasted landing the full-time position after working six months as a consultant without benefits.
A week later, Mr Ferdman, 28, sat alone at the same place and ordered a gin and tonic to lament getting laid off by the bank, for the second time since 2008. When he told the bartender about his misfortune, his next round was on the house.
'I did everything right. I came into work every day, I put in long hours, and I still got punched in the face,' Mr Ferdman said. 'People shouldn't want to work in this industry anymore.'
Being young on Wall Street once meant having it all: style, smarts, and too much money to spend wisely. Now, 20-somethings in the finance industry are losing both cash and cachet.
Three years after the global financial crisis nearly brought Wall Street firms to the brink, the nation's largest banks are again struggling. As profits wane, layoffs have claimed thousands of jobs, and those still employed have seen their compensation shrink. These problems are set against the morale-crushing backdrop of the Occupy Wall Street movement, which has made a villain of a once-lionised industry.
Much of the burden of Wall Street's latest retrenchment has fallen on young financiers. The number of investment bank and brokerage employees between ages 20 and 34 fell 25 per cent from the third quarter of 2008 to the same period of 2011, a loss of 110,000 jobs from layoffs, attrition and voluntary departures.
By comparison, industry headcount dropped 17 per cent in the same period, according to an analysis by The New York Times of data for New York City provided by the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The number of staffers older than 55 decreased only 11 per cent.
Young financiers have experienced setbacks in the past. Bankers and traders who rushed wide-eyed to Wall Street in the halcyon days of the 1980s were waylaid by the stock market crash of Oct 19, 1987, known as Black Monday. Then they got pummelled in 2000 by the dot-com collapse and the recession that followed.
But unlike previous downturns, today's doldrums are here to stay, experts say.
'A lot of the positions that are being cut right now aren't coming back,' said Leslie Hild, a vice-president with the recruiting firm Right Management. 'It's an emotional roller coaster for almost everyone.'
The industry's imbroglio has also affected the plans of undergraduate and graduate students at the nation's top colleges.
At Harvard Business School, where a relatively high 39 per cent of this year's graduates went into finance, compared with 34 per cent last year, there has been a 'heck of a lot more anxiety' about next year's hiring season, according to William Sahlman, a professor of business administration there.
'People used to think of some of these organisations, like a Morgan Stanley or a Goldman Sachs, as safe career bets,' he said. 'Those firms are not going away, but they're going to hire half the people they hired before.'
Any sympathy for Wall Street's aspiring rainmakers - its huddled masses yearning to get rich - should be tempered by the fact that financial sector recessions often deal a soft blow. Laid-off financial workers typically receive large severance packages, which include the use of outplacement services. During their job hunt, many can draw on substantial savings built off past bonuses, on top of collecting unemployment. But for those laid-off Wall Street workers whose golden tickets have vanished, the disillusionment is real.
Sam Meek, 27, who was laid off in September when his Connecticut hedge fund decided to downsize, used to spend US$500 on charity dinners and lavish golf outings. Now, it's home- cooked meals and beer on the sofa. Recently, Mr Meek and his roommate, another unemployed banker who spoke on the condition of anonymity because he did not want to jeopardise his job search, sat together in the kitchen filing for unemployment and drinking a bottle of champagne.
'I'm scraping by right now,' he said. -- NYT
Wall Street is full of the young and the jobless
Headcount of financiers aged 20-34 falls 25% from 3Q08 to 3Q11
(NEW YORK) Steve Ferdman celebrated getting a recent job offer from Credit Suisse in the usual Wall Street fashion. Over expensive oysters and dark rum cocktails at a trendy Manhattan restaurant with his parents, he toasted landing the full-time position after working six months as a consultant without benefits.
A week later, Mr Ferdman, 28, sat alone at the same place and ordered a gin and tonic to lament getting laid off by the bank, for the second time since 2008. When he told the bartender about his misfortune, his next round was on the house.
'I did everything right. I came into work every day, I put in long hours, and I still got punched in the face,' Mr Ferdman said. 'People shouldn't want to work in this industry anymore.'
Being young on Wall Street once meant having it all: style, smarts, and too much money to spend wisely. Now, 20-somethings in the finance industry are losing both cash and cachet.
Three years after the global financial crisis nearly brought Wall Street firms to the brink, the nation's largest banks are again struggling. As profits wane, layoffs have claimed thousands of jobs, and those still employed have seen their compensation shrink. These problems are set against the morale-crushing backdrop of the Occupy Wall Street movement, which has made a villain of a once-lionised industry.
Much of the burden of Wall Street's latest retrenchment has fallen on young financiers. The number of investment bank and brokerage employees between ages 20 and 34 fell 25 per cent from the third quarter of 2008 to the same period of 2011, a loss of 110,000 jobs from layoffs, attrition and voluntary departures.
By comparison, industry headcount dropped 17 per cent in the same period, according to an analysis by The New York Times of data for New York City provided by the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The number of staffers older than 55 decreased only 11 per cent.
Young financiers have experienced setbacks in the past. Bankers and traders who rushed wide-eyed to Wall Street in the halcyon days of the 1980s were waylaid by the stock market crash of Oct 19, 1987, known as Black Monday. Then they got pummelled in 2000 by the dot-com collapse and the recession that followed.
But unlike previous downturns, today's doldrums are here to stay, experts say.
'A lot of the positions that are being cut right now aren't coming back,' said Leslie Hild, a vice-president with the recruiting firm Right Management. 'It's an emotional roller coaster for almost everyone.'
The industry's imbroglio has also affected the plans of undergraduate and graduate students at the nation's top colleges.
At Harvard Business School, where a relatively high 39 per cent of this year's graduates went into finance, compared with 34 per cent last year, there has been a 'heck of a lot more anxiety' about next year's hiring season, according to William Sahlman, a professor of business administration there.
'People used to think of some of these organisations, like a Morgan Stanley or a Goldman Sachs, as safe career bets,' he said. 'Those firms are not going away, but they're going to hire half the people they hired before.'
Any sympathy for Wall Street's aspiring rainmakers - its huddled masses yearning to get rich - should be tempered by the fact that financial sector recessions often deal a soft blow. Laid-off financial workers typically receive large severance packages, which include the use of outplacement services. During their job hunt, many can draw on substantial savings built off past bonuses, on top of collecting unemployment. But for those laid-off Wall Street workers whose golden tickets have vanished, the disillusionment is real.
Sam Meek, 27, who was laid off in September when his Connecticut hedge fund decided to downsize, used to spend US$500 on charity dinners and lavish golf outings. Now, it's home- cooked meals and beer on the sofa. Recently, Mr Meek and his roommate, another unemployed banker who spoke on the condition of anonymity because he did not want to jeopardise his job search, sat together in the kitchen filing for unemployment and drinking a bottle of champagne.
'I'm scraping by right now,' he said. -- NYT
