Lost Your Career? Huge Job Losses Equal Big Changes For Wall Streeters

By: Christopher Nutt
Financial Analyst

(Onlyinphiladelphia.com) — Far away from the trading floors and plush offices of top executives, the slashing of normal working class jobs in project management, technology, and operation roles in the financial industry is a harsh new reality.

The financial crisis has caused an impact that has reverberated from Center City, Philadelphia to the Icelandic financial crisis 3,000 miles across the globe. No country, economy, industry, or company has been immune to the crisis of confidence that will be felt for years to come.

One industry to bear a heavy toll is Wall Street. From the fire sale acquisition of Bear Sterns, collapse of Lehman Brothers, merger of titan Merrill Lynch, purchase of Wachovia, or the buyout of Washington Mutual, many of these jobs will never return.

This leaves people once employed by these financial institutions faced with some very hard choices.

“Some Wall Streeters have found new jobs in the financial sector. Others have moved on to different career choices. And some still haven’t decided what to do with the rest of their lives. Nearly 200,000 financial professionals lost their jobs in New York alone—500,000 nationwide.”

Everyone from the traders on Wall Street, to President Obama, will continue to keep a close eye on the unemployment report, hoping to see some improvement in the jobs picture. The current unemployment rate stands steady at 9.7 percent.

Reuters reports that since the start of the recession, 8.36 million jobs have been lost. The labor market has been gradually improving and the pace of layoffs has slowed markedly from early 2009 when the economy was losing 750,000 jobs on average a month.

Regardless, “Many Americans are still struggling to find work. And Wall Street is no different, despite the sharp rebound in the stock market and strong earnings at many big financial institutions,” says Mark Koba, Senior Editor at CNBC.

Many individuals who lost their Wall Street jobs are seeking a new career path, or have no desire ever to return. We can only guess how the impact of an influx of ex-Wall Streeters into new career paths will impact main street.