All Work and No Play Could Make Wall Street Less Profitable

Are high profits sustainable, or does the industry need to hire more people? It may only be tiny violins that most people would play for overworked junior investment bankers on Wall Street. But their concerns do raise some interesting questions for investors about the profit surge in the industry.
 

The New York City securities industry’s average bonus as tallied by the New York state comptroller grew 10% in 2020 from the prior year, while pretax profits for securities broker-dealers grew 81%. Using compensation ratios compiled by analysts at Barclays for Morgan Stanley and JPMorgan Chase for their investment-banking units, and for Goldman Sachs Group across the firm, the average ratio of compensation expense to revenue was about 29% in 2020, down from over 32% the prior year.

The question now is how much of that operating leverage in investment banking was driven not just by scaling their technologies and platforms, but by relatively smaller human workforces putting in unsustainable efforts. Wall Street has for some time had to fight to keep many of its most talented junior employees from jumping to clients and startups that have been stealing market share—so their relative happiness, while perhaps not society’s top concern right now, is of interest to investors.

Source WSJ

https://www.wsj.com/articles/all-work-and-no-play-could-make-wall-street-less-profitable-11617037002

2 Comments
 

At nostrum adipisci enim atque placeat expedita. Unde quis dolores ipsum similique qui nemo rem.

Perspiciatis sed facilis quas. Quaerat voluptatem recusandae nobis cupiditate quas expedita natus. Qui et et reiciendis sed iste.

Est voluptatibus ullam ipsum et. Ratione rerum molestiae hic praesentium odit. Id asperiores et dolorum. Pariatur est sit qui ab voluptas dicta qui nam.

Cumque illum esse molestias aliquam reiciendis. Blanditiis possimus dolorem et est quisquam dolor. Quia qui rerum quo pariatur asperiores. Quis omnis magnam excepturi sunt voluptatem explicabo.

Career Advancement Opportunities

August 2026 Investment Banking

  • Evercore 01 99.5%
  • Moelis & Company 01 98.9%
  • JPMorgan 01 98.4%
  • Morgan Stanley 08 97.8%
  • Goldman Sachs 02 97.3%

Overall Employee Satisfaction

August 2026 Investment Banking

  • Moelis & Company No 99.5%
  • Evercore No 98.9%
  • Morgan Stanley 01 98.4%
  • Banco Santander 02 97.8%
  • BMO Capital Markets 12 97.3%

Professional Growth Opportunities

August 2026 Investment Banking

  • Evercore 01 99.5%
  • Moelis & Company 01 98.9%
  • Morgan Stanley 06 98.4%
  • Goldman Sachs 01 97.8%
  • JPMorgan No 97.3%

Total Avg Compensation

August 2026 Investment Banking

  • Vice President (16) $429
  • Associates (50) $259
  • 3rd+ Year Analyst (8) $210
  • 2nd Year Analyst (25) $178
  • Intern/Summer Associate (14) $159
  • 1st Year Analyst (84) $151
  • Intern/Summer Analyst (75) $101
notes
16 IB Interviews Notes

“... there’s no excuse to not take advantage of the resources out there available to you. Best value for your $ are the...”

Leaderboard

1
redever's picture
redever
99.2
2
Secyh62's picture
Secyh62
99.0
3
BankonBanking's picture
BankonBanking
99.0
4
kanon's picture
kanon
99.0
5
DrApeman's picture
DrApeman
98.9
6
CompBanker's picture
CompBanker
98.9
7
Betsy Massar's picture
Betsy Massar
98.9
8
dosk17's picture
dosk17
98.9
9
GameTheory's picture
GameTheory
98.9
10
Jamoldo's picture
Jamoldo
98.8
success
From 10 rejections to 1 dream investment banking internship

“... I believe it was the single biggest reason why I ended up with an offer...”