Report: Securities industry recovering

The securities industry is on pace to net more than $15 billion in profits in 2012, but firms have yet to recover the bulk of the jobs that were lost in the aftermath of the financial crisis, according to an Oct. 9 report by state Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli.

DiNapoli said the securities industry earned $10.5 billion in the first half of 2012 and is on pace to top $15 billion in total earnings this year, after netting $7.7 billion in 2011.

However, the report notes that the approaching fiscal cliff and other global economic factors could “quickly erode profitability in the securities industry in the second half of the year.”

“The securities industry is still grappling with the fallout from the financial crisis, new regulations and slow economic recovery,” DiNapoli said in a press release. “How the industry negotiates this continued uncertainty could impact profitability and the finances of New York City and New York State.”

The report estimates that the New York City securities industry has recovered 7,900 of the 28,100 jobs that were lost during the financial crisis.

In 2011, the securities industry accounted for 23.2 percent of all private sector wages paid in New York City, according to the report, despite the fact that the industry comprised just 5.3 percent of the city’s private sector workforce.

The average salary, including bonuses, paid to securities industry employees in New York City rose by 16 percent in 2010 and by 0.5 percent in 2011 to $362,950, after falling sharply in 2009, according to the report.

For each new job created or lost in the securities industry, DiNapoli estimates that two additional jobs are created, or lost, in other industries in New York City and that one additional job is created, or lost, in the rest of the state.

The industry also is among the largest sources of tax revenues for New York City and New York State, DiNapoli said.