Wall Street bonuses up 8%

NEW YORK – While Wall Street firms have been cutting jobs, the traders and bankers who have held onto their jobs are being rewarded with bigger bonuses, according to a report released today by New York State Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli.

Total cash bonuses distributed by New York securities companies rose an estimated 8 percent to $20 billion in 2012, DiNapoli said, according to the Los Angeles Times. The average individual bonus was $121,900, or 9 percent higher than the year before.

In contrast, bonuses dipped 14 percent in 2011.

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The 2012 increase was partly due to deferred payments from previous years, DiNapoli said, according to the Associated Press.

Also, financial industry profits are growing. The brokerage operations of companies on the New York Stock Exchange made a total of $23.9 billion in profit in 2012, three times the $7.7 billion net income they earned in 2011, according to the LA Times.

“Wall Street is still in transition, but it is slowly adjusting to changes in its economic and regulatory environment,” DiNapoli said in a conference call with reporters today, according to Bloomberg Businessweek. “Profits and bonuses rebounded in 2012, but the industry is still restructuring. Despite its smaller size, the securities industry is still a very important part of the New York City and New York state economies.”