RJ and Makay

Is New York still the center of the finance industry? According to an employment report on the second quarter released by the Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association, the big apple could be losing its foothold these days, not just in the U.S. but across the rest of the world, also.

The report said that at the end of June this year, employment in the securities industry in New York City was at 159,200. This is the lowest level seen since the end of 1993, when employment in New York was at 157,400. Current employment levels are 21% less than the all-time peak of 200,100 in 2000, and are 17% less since the month before the Lehman Brothers collapse, which was August 2008. Meanwhile, employment in the wider U.S. securities industry has dropped only 8% over the same time-frame.