eFinancialCareers

Crain's New York Business argues Wall Street job losses have been exaggerated. Citing recent data from the New York Department of Labor, the newspaper says only 19,000 financial services jobs have disappeared from the Big Apple since August 2008.

Sure, three of the five largest investment banks are gone, and Citigroup and AIG are now wards of the state. And yes, there has been severe contraction, including painful job cuts, especially in capital markets, real estate and mergers and acquisitions. But Manhattan's financial district hasn't been mothballed. Not yet, anyway.

While experts, including Rae Rosen at the New York Fed, tell the newspaper severance packages with weekly payouts are keeping phantom employees on the payroll, we at eFinancialCareers News have heard of few long-term severance payouts. Some observers credit the Troubled Asset Relief Program for saving jobs, or suggest foreign institutions and boutiques are picking up benched talent.

When it comes to job loss counts, the official numbers consistently lag, and sometimes contradict what our users say is happening in the New York bank job market - but then again, our users are job hunters.

A look at the N.Y. Labor Department's data for the prior year, running from April 2008 to April 2009, shows a total of 31,700 jobs lost in the financial activities sector, with 21,200 of those losses centered in securities, commodity contracts, and related activities.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics reports 66,900 jobs were lost nationally during the same period from the financial activities sector, including securities, commodity contracts, and investments.