Wall St layoffs topped 49,000 last month: NY Assembly Speaker
By Joan Gralla
NEW YORK (Reuters) - New York's financial industry this year had already laid off 49,340 people by late August, a number doomed to rise in the wake of Lehman Brothers's bankruptcy and Bank of America's embrace of Merrill Lynch, the State Assembly speaker said on Wednesday.
This is one of the largest estimates of job losses so far for the banks and brokerages that pay one-fifth of the state's taxes and about one-third of city wages and salaries.
Mayor Michael Bloomberg, City Comptroller William Thompson and Gov. David Paterson on Wednesday all said the profit-eating cyclone rocking banks and brokerages had not run its course.
The mayor, an independent and former Wall Street trader whose eponymous news agency has made him a billionaire, noted that even foreigners, whose visits and investments have buoyed the city economy, now could pull back. Citing huge drops in Chinese and Russian stock markets, he told reporters: "I don't know that I see that foreign money coming in here."
New York City has the lion's share of the state's financial workers, with 181,000 employees in July, down 11,000 from a year ago, according to the state labor department.
Democratic Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, whose district includes the World Trade Center complex, said its rebuilding now could falter because of the financial sector's losses.
"This entire chain of failures will also hamper our ability to rebuild my hometown of Lower Manhattan, to recover the jobs we lost after September 11th, and to regain our status as the nation's third largest central business district," he said.
Gov. Paterson told Albany radio WCBI that the "actions of the last 72 hours" may already have run through a $500 million cushion the state set aside for this year.
He was referring to the federal bailout of American International Group, Lehman's demise and Bank of America's acquisition of Merrill Lynch.
Predicting "similar plights" for more financial companies, the Democratic governor said the Treasury and Federal Reserve were finding it hard to decide which companies to help. This is a vital issue for other cities, including Detroit, whose automakers are now seeking government loans.
The regulators' approach is like an experiment that robs markets of assurance, he said. "If the rat hits the side of the cage and gets food, then it hits the side of the cage and gets electrocuted so you don't really know (what to expect.)"
The Republican-led State Senate, which on Wednesday unveiled job-creating credits and tax cuts, and the Democratic-controlled Assembly vowed to return if Paterson says the budget needs more adjustments despite more than $400 million of cuts made in August.
The city comptroller said an income tax hike or ending a 7 percent property tax cut were both "on the table," though the Democrat added more fat could be trimmed from the budget.
The mayor, who has said the city cannot close next year's $2.3 billion deficit just by making cuts, said it is too soon to identify other revenue-raisers.
(Additional reporting by John Crawley in Washington)
NEW YORK (Reuters) - New York's financial industry this year had already laid off 49,340 people by late August, a number doomed to rise in the wake of Lehman Brothers's bankruptcy and Bank of America's embrace of Merrill Lynch, the State Assembly speaker said on Wednesday.
This is one of the largest estimates of job losses so far for the banks and brokerages that pay one-fifth of the state's taxes and about one-third of city wages and salaries.
Mayor Michael Bloomberg, City Comptroller William Thompson and Gov. David Paterson on Wednesday all said the profit-eating cyclone rocking banks and brokerages had not run its course.
The mayor, an independent and former Wall Street trader whose eponymous news agency has made him a billionaire, noted that even foreigners, whose visits and investments have buoyed the city economy, now could pull back. Citing huge drops in Chinese and Russian stock markets, he told reporters: "I don't know that I see that foreign money coming in here."
New York City has the lion's share of the state's financial workers, with 181,000 employees in July, down 11,000 from a year ago, according to the state labor department.
Democratic Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, whose district includes the World Trade Center complex, said its rebuilding now could falter because of the financial sector's losses.
"This entire chain of failures will also hamper our ability to rebuild my hometown of Lower Manhattan, to recover the jobs we lost after September 11th, and to regain our status as the nation's third largest central business district," he said.
Gov. Paterson told Albany radio WCBI that the "actions of the last 72 hours" may already have run through a $500 million cushion the state set aside for this year.
He was referring to the federal bailout of American International Group, Lehman's demise and Bank of America's acquisition of Merrill Lynch.
Predicting "similar plights" for more financial companies, the Democratic governor said the Treasury and Federal Reserve were finding it hard to decide which companies to help. This is a vital issue for other cities, including Detroit, whose automakers are now seeking government loans.
The regulators' approach is like an experiment that robs markets of assurance, he said. "If the rat hits the side of the cage and gets food, then it hits the side of the cage and gets electrocuted so you don't really know (what to expect.)"
The Republican-led State Senate, which on Wednesday unveiled job-creating credits and tax cuts, and the Democratic-controlled Assembly vowed to return if Paterson says the budget needs more adjustments despite more than $400 million of cuts made in August.
The city comptroller said an income tax hike or ending a 7 percent property tax cut were both "on the table," though the Democrat added more fat could be trimmed from the budget.
The mayor, who has said the city cannot close next year's $2.3 billion deficit just by making cuts, said it is too soon to identify other revenue-raisers.
(Additional reporting by John Crawley in Washington)
Labels: layoffs, Wall Street
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