Wall St needs help to remain centre for jobs, innovation

RECENTLY JPMorgan Chase and HSBC announced reductions in the size of their workforce. This comes on top of downsizing since the financial crisis, by many of New York City's largest private-sector employers, including Bank of America, Citigroup, BNY Mellon, American Express, American International Group and MetLife.

In the last five years, the city has seen a net loss of 25,000 financial-services jobs. Banks and insurance companies, which face stricter regulations as a result of the crisis, have shed the most jobs, while private equity and investment-services firms have enjoyed robust growth. Areas where jobs have been added, such as compliance and risk management, don't directly contribute to the bottom line.

Critics who think the financial-services sector is still too big, and that salaries at the top are still too high, might say: So what? But that is not a view anyone who cares about our city can afford to take.