RJ and Makay

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Financial sector employment has risen above 2001 levels in 21 states, indicating that the banking industry is regaining some of its past luster, according to an On Numbers analysis of new Bureau of Labor Statistics data.

Wall Street employment climbed 5.1 percent in March from a year ago, but was roughly flat on a monthly basis. Investment banking headcount moved slightly higher, though the category posted it’s lowest total in 10 months, according to the New York State Department of Labor.

Overall, Wall Street reported 169,000 professionals, up from 160,800 a year ago, but down 0.4 percent from 169,600 in February. So far this year, the financial services industry has added 8,200 jobs. In 2010, the securities industry added jobs in 11 of 12 months, with average gains of 800 per month.

Morgan Stanley has every intention of moving forward with plans to eventually purchase the rest of its joint venture with Smith Barney, according to Morgan Stanley Chief Executive James Gorman.  During the Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association annual meeting in New York, Gorman reaffirmed that the deal with Citigroup, Inc. was structured to have an open-ended option to allow Morgan Stanley flexibility to “be more aggressive or less aggressive” in buying the rest of the stake in Smith Barney.  Referring to his firm’s May 2012 option to buy the next 14% of Morgan Stanley Smith Barney, Gorman added that the plans are to “move forward on the first trigger.”

Last week, the Wall Street Journal reported that Morgan Stanley could consider postponing the timetable for its purchase of part of the Smith Barney venture so that it could meet tougher global capital requirements for banks in 2013. According to Mr. Gorman, the Basel III Capital Accord was “extraordinary” in its significance and Morgan Stanley had moved closer towards a safer, less leveraged approach to help it meet the new rules.  “Leverage is a killer,” he said, adding that a firm “only needs to be wrong twice” when it is leveraged 30-times assets to be “out of business.”