Wall Street’s workforce is slowly and relentlessly shrinking

It’s relentless.

Every year, the number of bankers and traders employed by the largest banks on Wall Street shrinks a little. Headcount across investment banking, equities and fixed-income trading at the top 12 banks dropped by 1,900 from the first quarter of 2016 to the first quarter of 2017, a fall of 3%, according to new data from industry consultant Coalition. The data includes: Bank of America Merrill Lynch, Barclays, BNP Paribas, Citigroup, Credit Suisse, Deutsche Bank, Goldman Sachs, HSBC, JPMorgan, Morgan Stanley, Societe Generale and UBS.

Headcount has now dropped 12,700 from 2012 to 2017, with the bulk of those cuts coming in fixed income, currencies and commodities divisions.

Brutal.

Coalition