RJ and Makay

Year-end bonus payouts at investment firms are estimated to increase slightly overall, according to a quarterly update on financial services compensation released by Johnson Associates. The outlook is not as positive as it was three months ago, but Johnson forecasts that even investment bankers might make about the same as in 2009, regardless of the weak volume of deals.

A “small increase” in year-end payouts is estimated for most of the industry, with the exception of equity and fixed-income trading desks, which are expected to see declines, compared to the large bonuses earned in 2009.

Industry-wide, Johnson forecasts that the average bonus per employee will still be approximately 20% less than the peak that sell-side firms experienced in 2007 and over 25% under 2007’s level for buy-side firms.

Lately, there has been a great amount of news about the upswing in hiring on the Street. While unemployment and job creation continue to remain sluggish nationwide, the financial services sector is starting to feel “bullish” about hiring again. At RJ & Makay we’re seeing cautious optimism throughout the industry regarding human capital hiring trends. We’re seeing first hand a steady increase in job orders this year, and a substantial jump in Q2 quantity over Q1.

News abounds in recent months regarding financial services hiring. Securities firms added almost 7,000 jobs in June according to BrokerHunter.com’s latest Employment Trends report. The finance and insurance industry added 15,200 new employees in June, the first increase since December. The New York State Department of Labor shows that New York just had the largest three-month increase in financial industry jobs (6,800) since 2008.