Wall Street Unoccupied With 200,000 Job Cuts

[marmar]

(Bloomberg) John Brady, co-head of MF Global Inc.’s Chicago office, was having a vodka cocktail at the Ritz- Carlton in Naples, Florida, overlooking the Gulf of Mexico, on the day his company reported its largest-ever quarterly loss.

“Wow, the sun just set,” Brady said to his wife and two colleagues attending a conference with him, he recalled in an interview. “I hope it doesn’t set on MF Global.”

A week later, on Oct. 31, the firm led by former Goldman Sachs Group Inc. (GS) co-Chief Executive Officer Jon Corzine collapsed. Brady and 1,065 colleagues joined a wave of firings that has washed away more than 200,000 jobs in the global financial-services industry this year, eclipsing 174,000 in 2009, data compiled by Bloomberg show. BNP Paribas (BNP) SA and UniCredit SpA (UCG) announced cuts last week, and the carnage likely will worsen as Europe’s sovereign-debt crisis roils markets.

“This is something very different,” said Huw Jenkins, a former head of investment banking at UBS AG (UBSN) who’s now a London- based managing partner at Brazil’s Banco BTG Pactual SA. “This is a structural change. The industry is shrinking.” ...........(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-11-22/wall-street-unoccupied-with-200-000-job-cuts.html#

[orwell]

1. Boo-Hoo...

...so sad.

[lumberjack_jeff]

2. Every industry is shrinking because americans don't believe we're all in the same boat.

Fire a bunch of public employees? Businesses say "Yay! Lower taxes!"
Why don't I have any customers? I guess I'll lay off workers. The financial sector rejoices, because the stock market always rewards mass layoffs.
Financial sector loses banking customers from their downsizing business clientele, they collapse and the laid off public employees rejoice, until they realize that they have even more competition for nonexistent jobs.

It's hard to escape the conclusion that this is a death spiral.