It still pays to be on Wall Street.
Even as the financial industry in New York has slashed jobs by the thousands, the average worker who remains is collecting a near-record paycheck.
In a report released on Tuesday, the New York State Comptroller, Thomas P. DiNapoli, said that the average pay package of securities industry employees grew slightly last year and was up 16.5 percent over the past two years, to $362,950. Wall Street's total compensation rose 4 percent last year to more than $60 billion.
That tally is the third highest in Wall Street history, trailing only the total amounts in the years 2007 and 2008, when the financial crisis was gathering force. The results are sure to raise eyebrows on Main Street and in Washington, where lavish pay packages have come under attack since the crisis.
But the report provides only a limited snapshot into Wall Street's finances. The wage data, which largely covers 2011, is somewhat outdated and other jo bs figures in the report do not account for the remaining months of 2012. Nearly half of all revenue on Wall Street is earmarked for compensation, and employees typically learn the size of their bonus at the end of the year.
Expectations for this year appear to be high, according to another study out today on pay. Nearly half, 48 percent, of 911 Wall Street employees surveyed by eFinancialCareers.com said they felt their bonuses this year will higher than in 2011. This is a marked rise from 2011, when 41 percent of survey respondents believed their annual bonus would increase.
The comptroller's annual report also depicted a cloudy outlook for the broader industry and its thousands of employees. In the face of new regulation and a lethargic economic recovery, the report notes, Wall Street has undergone a series of layoffs and lagging returns.
“The securities industry remains in transition and volatility in profits and employment show that we have no t yet reached the new normal,†Mr. DiNapoli said in a statement.
After posting a “disappointing†$7.7 billion in earnings last year, Wall Street in the first half of 2012 earned $10.5 billion, he said. The industry “is on pace†to earn more than $15 billion by the end of the year.
But even with signs of improvement, Wall Street is rapidly shedding jobs. The austerity efforts have claimed 1,200 positions so far this year, according to the report. Mr. DiNapoli estimated that the industry lost more than 20,000 jobs since late 2007.
Banks have also taken aim at lavish cash bonuses. The comptroller in February estimated that cash bonuses declined 13.5 percent, to $19.7 billion. In his latest report, Mr. DiNapoli said he expects that trend to continue.
As Wall Street reins in cash payouts to top executives, the banks have been encouraged to give more compensation in stock and other long-term compensation to reward employees. Such a move discourag es outsize risk taking and ties an employee's interest to the long-term health of the bank.
While pay remains high across the board, senior executive has fallen since the financial crisis. In 2007, the year before the financial crisis, Goldman chief executive Lloyd C. Blankfein made $68.5 million. In 2011 he took home $12 million.
For an executive like Mr. Blankfein, $12 million may be a pay cut, but it is still a princely sum compared with other industries. Between 2009 and 2011, compensation in the securities industry grew at an average annual rate of 8.7 percent, outpacing 5.3 percent for the rest of the private sector.
In 2011, financial jobs accounted for nearly a quarter of all private sector wages paid in NewYork City, even though it accounted for just a fraction, 5.3 percent, of city's private sector jobs.
