Nearly Half of Wall Street Expecting High Bonuses This Year
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An industry survey has found that almost half of Wall Street employees are looking forward to higher bonuses this year.
A survey by eFinancial Careers has found that 48 percent of Wall Street workers are anticipating higher bonuses this year. That’s an increase from last year, when the survey found that 41 percent believed their bonuses would jump.
An industry survey has found that almost half of Wall Street employees are looking forward to higher bonuses this year.
A survey by eFinancial Careers has found that 48 percent of Wall Street workers are anticipating higher bonuses this year. That’s an increase from last year, when the survey found that 41 percent believed their bonuses would jump.
Of those who expect a bonus increase this year, 41 percent said the primary reason was their personal achievements, 12 percent attributed it to their department’s performance and 26 percent to their firm’s success, the survey found.
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Employees of hedge funds and other asset managers were more optimistic than those at banks and broker-dealers, according to the survey.
Of the 911 respondents, 82 percent work for US-based companies.
Constance Melrose, a managing director at eFinancialCareers, told Bloomberg:
[quote] The mood is better, some people will be happier, but we still have another quarter to go. People are less pessimistic than they were a year ago. [/quote]
The main worry for Wall Street workers is the US economy, with 59 percent saying that it has the biggest potential negative influence on financial-services compensation, according to the survey. Ten percent said Europe’s debt crisis is the biggest concern and 12 percent chose the Dodd-Frank Act that revamped financial regulation, according to the survey.
Wall Street employees took home a total of $19.7 billion in bonuses last year, an average of $121,150 per employee. That’s a 13.5 decline from 2010, according to data released by the New York State Comptroller in February this year.
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However, DiNapoli said in a statement today that he expects the downward trend in Wall Street bonuses to continue this year.
Based on data for the first half of 2012, DiNapoli said “revenue and compensation trends have edged downwards” since February and the total cash bonus pool for work performed in 2012 is likely to decline for the second year in a row.
The last time the pool shrank for two consecutive years was in 2007 and 2008, at the beginning of the global financial crisis, according to the comptroller’s office.
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