In two short months, thousands of eager college graduates with newly minted MBAs will try to get a foot in the door at some financial service firm promising to pay more than the median U.S. income, even for interns. Wall Street is hiring, but not where most people are looking.
The year started off with banks announcing layoffs. Barclays Capital announced that it would cut 3,700 jobs -- most in the U.K. -- after posting a $1.3 billion fourth quarter loss. The bank's CEO, Antony Jenkins, said some divisions of the bank would be shut down entirely.
Closer to home, Goldman Sachs said it would reduce its headcount by 5%. Citigroup's CEO Michael Corbat said in December that the bank would cut 11,000 jobs worldwide, or 4% of its staff. The bank reduced its staff by 25% since 2008, when the financial crisis began following the bankruptcies and subsequent fall-out from Lehman Brothers and Bear Stearns.
"No one is going to tell you there's a hiring binge for fixed-income traders," said David Treussard, executive vice president in charge of global financial services at executive recruiting firm DHR International. "Trading is a stable if not declining business," he said.
A quick look at the Goldman Sachs career site is revealing. Of the 10 jobs posted on its front page, only three are in the U.S. There's a job for a mergers and acquisitions analyst and IT programmer in New York. In Salt Lake City, Goldman is hiring an associate in compliance. Half of the jobs are in Asia.
"There is hiring going on in the industry. It's going on all over. Net-net we are still losing jobs in the compared to 2008, but new financial regulation means investment banks are hiring lawyers and support staff for compliance," said Treussard. "On the business and money management side, we are seeing a lot of demand from private equity firms looking for senior level executives to run their portfolio companies," he added.
The traditional Wall Street sell-side trader job is disappearing. Moreover, the whole notion of a career on Wall Street is changing. Companies have left New York. More people work for the market in cities outside of the New Jersey-New York hub and are finding hiring at private equity firms in California and wealth management jobs in Boston.
College graduates are still part of the bulge brackets hiring practices, but there are fewer opportunities. Recent MBA graduates looking for a career in M&A might have to settled initially for support slots in the back office.
By DHR's estimates, Treussard said financial service firms are hiring more this year than last year. It just depends what sector of the market job hunters are examining. "We do a lot of work with private equity for example. And at the end of the 2012, an election year, hiring just stopped. But now that has changed and they come to me all the time looking for top management. That kind of executive level search has been very busy in our practice. But I'll admit that it's a tough market for new entrants."
Looking again at the Goldman Sachs career website, the company this year posted 73 jobs for IT; 18 jobs for compliance and 8 jobs for legal. On the other hand, Goldman posted 8 positions for fixed income and commodities; seven for its investment banking division; four in global investment research and two openings for its equity division.
It might not be the traditional "Wall Street" job, but for some, hiring in financial services is on the upswing. Despite all the layoffs coming at Goldman, they are hiring around 30 senior and associate level professionals in private wealth management nationwide.
See: Barclays Posts Loss, Will Cut 3,700 Jobs -- Deal Book/The New York Times
Goldman Sachs Braces For New Round Of Layoffs -- Fox Business
Hey Wall Street, Get Ready For More Layoffs -- CNN Money
