Sign of the times? Securities jobs near level set before 1987 crash
NEW YORK -- Employment in the securities industry is poised to smash a record set just before the 1987 stock-market crash.</br></br>In what some say could be yet another sign that the stock market is nearing a top, the number of brokers, traders, investment bankers, analysts and others in the securities industry stood at nearly 257,000 at the end of the first quarter, just 2% shy of the record 262,173 set in September 1987 -- and up 22% from the recent low in 1990, according to the Securities Industry Association, a trade group.</br></br>The 1987 crash brought Wall Street's then-record hiring levels to a screeching halt, of course. Securities firms, scrambling to cut costs amid declining business, let go 52,000 employees from September 1987 to year-end 1990. Since then, gun-shy Wall Street executives have taken pains to prevent a bulk-up in hiring that would lead to the kind of painful boom-and-bust cycle that has characterized the Street throughout its history.</br></br>Some say the Street hasn't learned its lesson.</br></br>"You have to be nervous about the buildup," says Dean Eberling, an analyst at Prudential Securities Inc. "I think people are looking at their business and saying it is subtlely different this time -- but this is a business that is transaction sensitive." And when the volume of deals or trades plummet, so will head count, Mr. Eberling predicts.