Waning Wall Street: The end of a 35-year era

The New York Post reports:

“Unlike in prior economic recoveries,” said state Comptroller Tom DiNapoli last week, “the securities industry has not been a driving force in the current jobs recovery.”

Of the 528,800 private jobs Gotham has added since mid-2009, only 2 percent have been on Wall Street, compared with 10 percent after the two previous downturns.

In the ’80s, for example, Wall Street gained 73,000 jobs — for a total of 163,000 by 1987. When the markets crashed the next year, 19,000 got the boot — but by 1994, they were all back, and then some.

By the turn of the century, Wall Street had 200,300 jobs — only to lose 36,700 posts over the next three years.

By 2007, we were almost back — with 191,300 workers. Seven long years later, we’ve got 167,800 employed on the Street.

Yep: With Wall Street making record post-bailout profits, that’s 8,500 heads below where we were in 1997 — and only 4,800 higher than way back in 1987, according to industry data.

An article well worth your time.