Wall Street hiring jumps most since 2008

Leverage is back on Wall Street — and this time it’s the bankers who have it. Firms are adding jobs for the first time in two years, rebuilding businesses cut during the financial crisis and offering guaranteed payouts to lure top bankers.

In New York, 6,800 financial-industry positions were added from the end of February through May, the largest three-month increase since 2008, according to the New York State Department of Labor.

Morgan Stanley and Citigroup are among banks that are hiring to replenish their ranks, while Nomura Holdings and Jefferies Group have been recruiting talent from larger firms in a bid to increase their standing on Wall Street.

 

“Candidates are now getting multiple offers, and companies risk losing their desired candidates if they don’t act quickly enough — and that’s a real change,” said Constance Melrose, managing director of eFinancialCareers, which has seen a 75 per cent rise in investment banking jobs posted on its website from a year earlier.

The removal of uncertainty regarding Congress’s financial reform bill may reinforce the hiring rebound. A deal reached by members of a House and Senate conference last week diluted provisions from the tougher Senate bill, limiting rather than prohibiting the ability of federally insured banks to trade derivatives and invest in hedge funds or private-equity funds.

Five of the largest banks on Wall Street — Bank of America, JPMorgan Chase & Co, Citigroup, Goldman Sachs Group and Morgan Stanley — increased their total headcount in the first quarter, the first three-month jump since the start of 2009, when Bank of America purchased Merrill Lynch & Co. The five banks posted combined net income of $16.2 billion in the first quarter, and three reported record fixed-income trading revenue. It was the highest combined profit for the banks since the second quarter of 2007.

New York City had 429,000 financial jobs as of May 31, up from 422,200 in February, according to the Department of Labor data. That’s still down from the peak of 473,800 in August 2007, the data shows.

“The overall mood on Wall Street is significantly better than it was last year,” said Richard Lipstein, a managing director at Boyden Global Executive Search in New York. “Hiring comes down to what products are increasingly active, and there has been some pent-up demand for people, and that demand follows increased optimism.”

Firms are paying 30 per cent to 40 per cent more than what employees are expecting to earn to lure them from other banks this year, according to an April report from Options Group, a New York-based executive search and compensation consulting company. Equity derivatives and commodities trading are two of the fastest-growing areas, the report said.

Morgan Stanley, which added about 400 employees to its sales and trading business over the last year, has recruited financial institutions banker David Heaton, along with Michael Johnson and Jonathan Cox in the natural resources group, from Deutsche Bank AG. The New York-based bank also hired Gary Shedlin, from Citigroup in March to be a vice chairman in its investment banking division.

Citigroup hired Deutsche Bank’s co-head of Americas financial institutions, Peter Babej. Last month, Zurich-based Credit Suisse AG hired Andrew Horrocks from Moelis & Co less than a year after he had joined the boutique investment bank from Switzerland’s UBS.

Firms are also adding bankers who sell loans and investment advice to their wealthiest clients. Morgan Stanley Smith Barney, the world’s largest brokerage, plans to hire about 150 private bankers. Citigroup has hired about 15 private bankers since March and will add another 115 over the next several years, spokesman Mark Costiglio said in an interview.

Morgan Stanley’s headcount reached a record of 62,211 in the first quarter as a result of new hires and the addition of Smith Barney workers after it bought a controlling stake in a brokerage joint venture last year, according to company filings.

Goldman Sachs increased its employment rolls in the quarter by 600, to 33,100, still below the peak of 37,600 in the third quarter of 2008. Bank of America and JPMorgan, which added to their headcounts in the first three months of the year, remain below their highest levels. Citigroup has reduced its headcount by more than 100,000 since its peak in 2007 as the firm has sold businesses and cut costs.

Nomura, Japan’s largest brokerage, has hired 50 bankers in the US this year and plans to add as many as 35 more. The Tokyo-based firm hired Mark Epley, co-head of a group that serves private-equity firms, as well as oil and gas bankers Jim Denaut and Michael Hill from Deutsche Bank.

Deutsche Bank has hired 40 senior people for its investment banking and trading businesses in the Americas this year, spokeswoman Renee Calabro said.

Jefferies has been one of the most aggressive firms, increasing its headcount by more than 25 per cent since 2008, to 2,821 from 2,241, during a period Chief Executive Officer Richard Handler, called “a once-in-a-lifetime hiring opportunity.”